6723-16723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
UNIVERSAL
LIBRARY
o
CD
xavyan
1VSH3AINr
6723-26723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--6723-36723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
KEY TO KENTUCKY TOURS
1938
LEGEND
«» MAIN TOUR
— INDEPENDENT SIDE TOUR
------- DEPENDENT SIDE TOUR
® END OF MAIN TOUR SECTIONS
0 TOWN OR CITY
HORSE
CAVE C
CENTRAL BROWN3VIUI
T E N N E S
6723-46723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
Cl
VA,
DR.THOMAS WALKER HENDERSON
STATE PARK SETTLEMENT
SCHOOL
6723-56723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
Keep Your Card in This Pocket
Books will be issued only on presentation of proper
library cards.
Unless labeled otherwise, books may be retained
for four weeks. Borrowers finding; books marked, de-
faced 05 ^ mutilated are expected to report same at
libra-ry ,S&sk; otherwise the last borrower will be held
responsible for all imperfections discovered.
The card holder is responsible for all books drawn
on this card-
Penalty for over-due books 2c a day plus cost of
notices.
Lost cards and chanc/e of residence must be re-
ported promptly.
Public Library
Kansas City, Mo.
Keep Your Card in This Pocket
• CRKOWITZ ENVELOPE CO., K. C.. MO.
6723-66723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
KENTUCKY
A. Guide to the "Bluegrass State
6723-76723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--6723-86723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
KENTUCKY
A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE
Compiled and Written by the Federal Writers' Projec
of the Work Projects Administration
for the State of Kentucky
AMERICAN GUIDE SERIES
ILLUSTRATED
Sponsored by the University of Kentucky
HARCOURT, BRACE AND COMPANY
NEW YORK
6723-96723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
.COPYRIGHT, IQ39* BY'THE'tTNTVERgiTY OF KENTUCKY
All rights are resjp?v&,. including the right to reproduce this book or
" thereof in any form.
first published in October, 1930
PRINTED IN U.S.A. BY QT7INN & BODEN COMPANY, INC.
6723-106723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
FEDERAL WORKS AGENCY
WORK PROJECTS ADMINISTRATION
F. C. HARRINGTON, Commissioner
FLORENCE KJERR, Assistant Commissioner
GEORGE H, GOODMAN, Administrator,
Kentucky Work Projects Administration
6723-116723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--6723-126723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
Foreword
The American Guide Series, when completed, will include a guide-
book for every State in the Union. As each State studies and describes
its history, natural endowments, and special interests, the paradox of
diversity and homogeneity will become apparent. For each State has
a special personality due to its topography, people, and culture, while
certain qualities and interests bind all the States together.
These guidebooks will find place in schools, colleges, and libraries;
and private individuals will consult them for information available
elsewhere only in word-of-mouth tradition or obscure archives and
files. For these volumes are more than simply guidebooks: they are
wide-angle reference books as well. And this is not to say that the
guide aspect has been neglected—to be reassured on this point one
needs only to read with attention one of the many tours included.
The account of Kentucky's settlement and of the brave adventure
of its great men has brought romance and charm to novels, poems,
and stories which have carried the name of Kentucky far and wide
and have endeared the State to many who live beyond its borders.
Readers have been harrowed by details of poverty and hard living,
or soothed by the picturesque. In the present guidebook they will
learn things about the State that will give them a more rounded and
balanced picture. Kentucky's culture, only a century and a half old,
has been enriched by the customs and traditions of other regions and
other lands. Kentucky was the crossroads of migration, both from the
seaboard and from Europe, as the pioneers moved west or south.
People flowed into the State, some to remain, some to continue their
journeys, but in either case they made a contribution. The traveler
today will find evidences not only of earlier white culture and of the
progress that has been made in the past fifty years, but also traces of
prehistoric occupation.
For many years I have been thinking about a book on the subject,
"Why are Kentuckians as they are?" I have thought of the early
pioneers, their contributions to Kentucky, the settlements they estab-
lished, the houses they built, and the civilization that was erected on
vii
6723-136723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
these foundations. It is a complicated and fascinating subject. The
present book furnishes a broad basis for knowing the State that every
Kentuckian loves so devotedly; moreover, it suggests again and again
the courtesy, the graciousness, and the charm of living that are tradi-
tional here.
The articles in this book have described Kentucky scenes, resources,
and attitudes. Photographs and maps strengthen the written word.
The traveler will rejoice that touring routes have been planned to re-
veal the most significant aspects of the State, and the interest of his
journeys into Kentucky will be greatly enhanced if he has this book.
While the reader turns the pages let him remember that it is impos-
sible to say everything that he would wish said, or to say it as he would
wish it said. Anyone who knows the difficulty of bringing unity to a
guidebook will be pleased by the accomplishment of the State director
and of the staff writers. We are thankful that the Kentucky Guide is
a reality, and we are grateful to all those who have contributed their
time and talents to add to our pleasure and our understanding.
FRANK L. McVEY,
President, University of Kentucky
Lexington, Kentucky
July 1, 1939
6723-146723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
Preface
A commonwealth, in its most vital aspects, expresses itself through
its people, whose characteristics distinguish but do not separate them
from their neighbors. The differences need not necessarily be ethnic,
but it is likely that speech and customs and points of view may be
traced to an ancestry, itself marked and enduring. This is evidently
the case with the people of Kentucky. It is not by idle chance that
they admit with pride, sometimes with arrogance, that they are not the
same as those who face them on the northern side of the Ohio River.
It follows that a guidebook to Kentucky should be something more
than pages devoted to its natural wonders, climate, products, and his-
tory. It should seek to catch that spirit, indefinable but very real,
which has transformed Stephen Foster's "My Old Kentucky Home"
into something like a national ballad, poignant and tender, with per-
sonal appeal for Kentuckians. To retain that atmosphere, to make
the Kentuckian, his land, and his background more understandable to
those outside the State, has been one endeavor in the present volume.
Another, and perhaps more useful purpose, has been to tell the Ken-
tuckian himself of the natural resources that are his heritage, to invite
him to take stock, as it were, of the opportunities which lie at his door.
But the State is well worth the attention of the visitor who travels
to enjoy and to learn. It is primarily rural, and its one large city,
Louisville, lies on the northern boundary. It has its "rocks and rills"
of surpassing beauty, the remains of an untamed wilderness. It is for
this reason most of all that this book, like its forty-seven companions,
includes numerous meticulously detailed tours through the State, care-
fully traveled and checked for accuracy. This section of the Guide
should be helpful to visitors and instructive for stay-at-homes.
The research and the industry which have gone into this work, can-
not be too gratefully acknowledged. The book is submitted with mod-
esty, and also with intimate satisfaction in the co-operation without
which it could never have been completed.
Specialists, many of whom volunteered their services, read and criti-
cized all copy prepared by the editorial staff; in some cases they pre-
ix
6723-156723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
X PREFACE
pared the more technical articles. State representatives, formally ap-
pointed by several organizations, have been consulted in the prepara-
tion of the Guide. These include the Kentucky Chapter of the Ameri-
can Institute of Architects, the Association of American Railroads, and
the National Bus Traffic Association with the concurrence of the Na-
tional Association of Motor Bus Operators, and the American Hotel
Association.
The editors acknowledge with gratitude the help given by specialists
in various fields: Rexford Newcomb, Dean of the College of Fine Arts
and Applied Design, University of Illinois, who wrote the article Ken-
tucky Architecture; T. D. Clark, Department of History, University
of Kentucky, for the article Kentuckians, Who and What They Are;
C. J. Bradley and S. E. Wrather, Department of Agriculture, Univer-
sity of Kentucky; Grant C. Knight, Department of English, University
of Kentucky; Frank T. McFarland and Hansford T. Shacklette, De-
partment of Botany, University of Kentucky; Gordon Wilson and L. Y.
Lancaster, Western Kentucky State Teachers College; H. J. Thornton,
editor of the Louisville Board of Trade Journal; Andrew K. Rule,
Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Louisville; and Kincaid Herr, asso-
ciate editor, L. & N. Magazine.
Acknowledgment for assistance in securing and preparing material
is also made to Joe Hart, Louisville Courier-Journal; C. W. Jackson,
Louisville Central Negro High School; M. E. Ligon, Department of
Education, University of Kentucky; Neil Plummer and Victor Port-
mann, Department of Journalism, University of Kentucky; Edward
W. Rannells, Department of Art, University of Kentucky; Lucien
Beckner, formerly a member of the State staff of the Federal Writers'
Project; Adele Brandeis, State Director of the Federal Art Project;
the Standard Printing Company, publisher of Mammoth Cave and the
Cave Region of Kentucky, for permission to use material; David W—
Maurer, Department of English, University of Louisville; Preston
Hinebaugh, Ohio Horse Breeders' Association; and Donald Kays, De-
partment of Animal Husbandry, Ohio State University. Many others,
too numerous to list, have assisted in various ways.
It is our hope that the interest and pride that all have taken in the
preparation of the Kentucky Guide will be justified.
U. R. BELL,
State Director
6723-166723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
Contents
FOREWORD BY FRANK L. MC VEY, President, University of Kentucky vii
PREFACE: State Director, Federal Writers' Project ix
GENERAL INFORMATION xxiii
CALENDAR OF EVENTS xxvii
Part L Kentucky: The General Background
KENTUCKIANS 3
NATURAL SETTING 7
ARCHEOLOGY AND INDIANS 28
HISTORY 35
AGRICULTURE 50
TRANSPORTATION 56
MANUFACTURING AND MINING 60
LABOR 66
THE NEGRO 72
RELIGION 77
EDUCATION 83
FOLKLORE AND FOLK MUSIC 89
KENTUCKY THOROUGHBREDS 94
PRESS AND RADIO 102
THE ARTS 110
Part IL Cities and Towns
ASHLAND 139
COVINGTON 147
FRANKFORT 157
HARRODSBURG 168
LOUISVILLE 1*5
LEXINGTON 197
PADUCAH . 221
XI
6723-176723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
CONTENTS
Part IIL Highways and Byways
TOUR 1 (Portsmouth, Ohio)—South Portsmouth—Ashland—Catlettsburg
—Paintsville—Prestonsburg—Pikeville— (Norton, Va.)- [US 23] 233
2 Winchester—Stanton—Jackson—Hazard—Junction with
US 119. [State 15] 242
3 (Cincinnati, Ohio)—Newport—Cynthiana—Paris—Lexington—
Nicholasville—Lancaster—Somerset—(Chattanooga, Term.).
[US 27] 246
Section a. Ohio Line to Lexington 246
Section b. Lexington to Tennessee Line 253
4 (Cincinnati, Ohio)—Covington—Georgetown—Lexington—
Richmond—Corbin—Williamsburg—(Jellico, Tenn.).
[US 25 and US 25W] 261
Section a. Ohio Line to Lexington 262
Section b. Lexington to Tennessee Line 266
4A Junction with US 25—Pineville—Middlesboro—Cumberland
Gap—(Tazewell, Tenn.). [US 25E] 274
4B Corbin— Cumberland Falls State Park—Parker's Lake. [State 90] 279
5 Warsaw—Frankfort—Lawrenceburg—Harrodsburg—Danville—
Jamestown—Albany—(Chattanooga, Tenn.). [State 35] 280
6 (Indianapolis, Ind.)—Louisville—Bardstown—Hodgenville—
Glasgow—-Scottsville—(Nashville, Tenn.). [US 3IE] 288
7 (New Albany, Ind.)—Louisville—Elizabethtown—Munfordville—
Horse Cave—Bowling Green—Franklin—(Nashville, Tenn.).
[US31W] 296
7A Cave City—Mammoth Cave National Park—Mammoth
Cave. [State 70] 309
8 (Evansville, Ind.)—Henderson—Madisonville—Hopkinsville—
Guthrie—(Nashville, Tenn.). [US 41 and US 41E] 315
9 (Metropolis, HI.)—Paducah—May field—Fulton—
(Martin, Tenn.). [US 45] 322
10 (Cairo, 111.)—Wickliffe—Bar dwell—Clinton—Fulton—
(Memphis, Tenn.). [US 51] 324
11 South Portsmouth—Vanceburg—Maysville—Alexandria.
[State 10] 329
12 (Cincinnati, Ohio)—Covington—Warsaw—Carrollton—
Louisville. [US 42] 334
12A Junction with US 42—Butler Memorial State Park—Owenton—
Junction with State 40. [US 227] 341
13 Willow—Falmouth—Owenton—New Castle—Junction with
US 60. [State 22] 344
6723-186723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
CONTENTS Xlll
TOUR 14 (Aberdeen, Ohio)-—Maysville—Georgetown—Versailles—-Bards-
town— Elizabethtown—Central City—Paducah. [US 62] 351
Section a. Ohio Line to Elizabethtown 351
Section b. Elizabethtown to Paducah 356
15 (Aberdeen, Ohio)—Maysville—Lexington—Harrodsburg—Bards-
town—Hodgenville—Cave City—Bowling Green—Paducah.
[US 68] 362
Section a. Ohio Line to Lexington 362
Section b. Lexington to Bowling Green 374
Section c. Bowling Green to Paducah 382
16 (Huntington, W. Va.)—Ashland—Owingsville—Mount Sterling—
Winchester—Lexington—Versailles—Frankfort—Louisville—Hen-
derson—Paducah—Wickliffe— (Charleston, Mo.). [US 60] 387
Section a. West Virginia Line to Lexington 387
Section b. Lexington to Louisville 396
Section c. Louisville to Missouri Line 400
17 Warn" eld—Paintsville—Mount Sterling—Georgetown—
Junction with US 60. [State 40] 414
17A Paris—Boonesboro—Richmond. [US 227] 419
18 Junction with US 23—Hindman—Somerset—Columbia-
Glasgow—Junction with US 31W-68. [State 80] 424
19 (Williamson, W. Va.)—Pikeville—Jenkins—Junction with
US 25E. [US 119] 433
20 Burnside—Monticello—Albany—Burkesville—Glasgow. [State 90] 441
Part IV. Appendices
CHRONOLOGY 451
SELECTIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY 462
INDEX 471
6723-196723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--6723-206723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
List of Illustrations
I. The Natural Setting 14
BREAKS OF SANDY (Caufield
6723-216723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
XVI LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
INTERIOR FEDERAL HILL, "MY OLD KENTUCKY HOME,"
NEAR BARDSTOWN (Caufield & Shook)
FEDERAL HILL, "MY OLD KENTUCKY HOME" (Caufield &
Shook}
ASHLAND, HOME OF HENRY CLAY, LEXINGTON (Lafayette
Studio)
JOHN HUNT MORGAN HOME, LEXINGTON (Lafayette Studio)
JEFFERSON COUNTY COURTHOUSE, LOUISVILLE (Caufield
& Shook)
III. Architecture 42
DIAMOND POINT, HARRODSBURG (Simmons Studio)
SHROPSHIRE HOUSE, GEORGETOWN (Lafayette Studio)
LIBERTY HALL, FRANKFORT (Cusick)
WILMORE GARRETT RESIDENCE, NEAR LEXINGTON
(Lafayette Studio)
MCAFEE HOUSE, NEAR HARRODSBURG (Simmons studio)
OLD KEENE PLACE, NEAR LEXINGTON (Lafayette Studio)
FAIR OAKS, NEAR HARRODSBURG (Simmons Studio)
SCARLET GATE, HOME OF JAMES LANE ALLEN, NEAR
LEXINGTON (Lafayette Studio)
CLAY HILL, HARRODSBURG (Simmons Studio)
MANSION MUSEUM, HARRODSBURG (Simmons Studio)
CARNEAL HOUSE, COVINGTON (Rolsten Photo Service)
WICKLAND, BARDSTOWN (Caufield £• Shook)
THE ORLANDO BROWN HOUSE, FRANKFORT (Caufield
6723-226723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS XVU
COAL MINE (Farm Security Administration)
MISSISSIPPI RIVER AT COLUMBUS (Caufidd & Shook)
ALONG THE PINEVILLE-HARLAN ROAD (Caufidd & Shook)
DIX DAM, HERRINGTON LAKE (Aero-Graphic Corporation)
BARDSTOWN DISTILLERY (Caufidd & Shook)
TOBACCO MARKET (Caufidd & Shook)
MULE DAY (WPA Staff Photographer)
CHAIR MAKERS (Caufidd & Shook)
V. Education and Religion 86
OLD CENTRE, CENTRE COLLEGE, DANVILLE (Simmons
Studio)
MOUNTAIN SCHOOL OF NATURAL STONE, A WPA PROJECT
(WPA in Kentucky)
BEREA COLLEGE, BEREA (Caufidd & Shook)
KENTUCKY SCHOOL FOR THE DEAF, DANVILLE (Caufield fr
Shook)
THE UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY, AIRVIEW (Aero-Graphic
Corporation)
TRAPPIST MONASTERY, GETHSEMANE (Aero-Graphic Cor-
poration)
AUDUBON MUSEUM, HENDERSON (WPA in Kentucky)
GIDDINGS HALL, GEORGETOWN COLLEGE (Lafayette Studio)
GUEST HOUSE, SHAKERTOWN (Caufield & Shook)
DOORWAY TO GUEST HOUSE, SHAKERTOWN (Caufield &
Shook)
SHAKER CEREMONIES (Harrodsburg Herald)
SHAKER CEREMONIES (Harrodsburg Herald)
ST. JOSEPH'S CHURCH, BARDSTOWN (Caufidd & Shook)
MUD MEETING HOUSE (c. 1806), NEAR HARRODSBURG
(Simmons Studio)
6723-236723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
XV111 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
VI. In the Bluegrass 244
ARISTOCRAT (Caufield & Shook")
CHURCHILL DOWNS, LOUISVILLE (Caufield & Shook)
WAR ADMIRAL, WINNER OF THE 1937 KENTUCKY DERBY
(Caufield & Shook)
MAN O' WAR (Caufield & Shook)
COMING OUT OF PADDOCK, CHURCHILL DOWNS (Caufield
& Shook)
BLUE GRASS TROTTERS IN ACTION (Lafayette Studio)
ON DIXIANA FARM (Caufield 6- Shook)
STABLES AT ELMENDORF (Lafayette Studio)
IDLE HOUR STABLE (Lafayette Studio)
SPRING IN THE BLUE GRASS (Lafayette Studio)
BLESSING OF THE HOUNDS CEREMONY BY IROQUOIS
HUNT CLUB (Lafayette Studio)
GRIME'S MILL HOUSE, HEADQUARTERS OF IROQUOIS HUNT
CLUB (Lafayette Studio)
ROAD THROUGH THE BLUE GRASS COUNTRY (Lafayette
Studio)
A KENTUCKY PIKE (Caufield 6- Shook)
VII. Along the Highway I 274
GOLD DEPOSITORY, CAMP KNOX (Caufield 6- Shook)
FORT KNOX (Caufield & Shook)
INDIAN BURIAL GROUND, WICKLIFFE (Murray Hite)
BRYAN STATION SPRING, LEXINGTON (Caufield 6- Shook)
FORT HARROD, HARRODSBURG (Caufield 6- Shook)
FLOOD WATERS REACH STATUE OF CHIEF PADUKE,
PADUCAH (1937) (WPA in Kentucky)
COVERED BRIDGE, CYNTHIANA (Lafayette Studio)
OLD CANE RIDGE MEETING HOUSE (1792), NEAR PARIS
(Lafayette Studio)
WOOLRIDGE MONUMENTS, MAYFIELD (Murray Hite)
MT. LEBANON, NEAR PARIS (Lafayette Studio)
6723-246723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS XIX
MINING TOWN (Farm Security Administration)
THE FAITH HEALER (U. S. Forest Service)
MINER'S HOME (Farm Security Administration)
CUMBERLAND FALLS LODGE (Caufield & Shook)
ELKHORN CREEK, NEAR LEXINGTON (Caufield & Shook)
VIII. Along the Highway II 304
TROUBLESOME CREEK DAM (Caufield & Shook)
IN THE LICKING RIVER VALLEY (Rolsten Photo Service)
SHEEP GRAZING (Caufield & Shook)
MOUNTAIN ROAD (Caufield & Shook)
THE PASTURE (Caufield & Shook)
CUTTING BURLEY TOBACCO (Caufield & Shook)
TOBACCO CURING (Caufield & Shook)
GRINDING SORGHUM CANE (Caufield & Shook)
BOILING SORGHUM (Caufield 6- Shook)
MOUNTAIN CABIN (Caufield & Shook)
HOME IN CUMBERLAND MOUNTAINS (Caufield & Shook)
HELL-FER-SARTAIN CREEK (Caufield & Shook)
HOME (Farm Security Administration)
BULLETIN BOARD OF FARMERS EXCHANGE, OWENSBORO
(Farm Security Administration)
6723-256723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--6723-266723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
List of Maps
KEY TO KENTUCKY TOURS front end paper
KENTUCKY STATE MAP back pocket
TRANSPORTATION reverse of State map
EASTERN MOUNTAINS 9
BLUEGRASS AND KNOB COUNTRY 17
PENNYRILE AND WESTERN COAL FIELDS 20 and 21
THE JACKSON PURCHASE 23
ASHLAND 145
COVINGTON 153
FRANKFORT 163
LOUISVILLE 187
LEXINGTON 203
LEXINGTON HORSE FARM TOUR 211
PADUCAH 227
6723-276723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--6723-286723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
General Information
(State map showing highways, and maps giving railroad, air,
bus, and water transport routes, in pocket inside back cover)
Railroads: Baltimore & Ohio R.R. (B&O); Chesapeake & Ohio Ry.
(C&O); Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Ry. (Big Four,
N. Y. Central System); Chicago, Indianapolis & Louisville Ry.
(Monon Route); Frankfort & Cincinnati R.R. (F&C); Flemingsburg
& Northern R.R. (F&N); Illinois Central R.R. (1C); Louisville &
Nashville R.R. (L&N); Mobile & Ohio R.R. (M&O); Nashville,
Chattanooga & St. Louis Ry. (NC&St.L); Pennsylvania R.R. (PRR);
Southern Ry. (Southern) (see Transportation map).
Bus Lines: Blue Ribbon Lines, Gibbs Bus Line, Greyhound Lines,
Meadors & Allen, Mohawk Stages, and Southern Limited furnish
scheduled interstate service. Many other lines furnish intrastate
service.
Air Lines: American Airlines (Cleveland, Fort Worth, Los Angeles);
Eastern Airlines (Chicago, Miami) (see Transportation map).
Highways: Fifteen Federal highways. Even numbers run east and
west; US 60 is transcontinental. Odd numbers run north and south.
State highway patrolled. Gas tax 6$. (See State map for routes.)
Motor Vehicle Laws (digest): Maximum speed, 40 m.p.h., not en-
forced; greater speed permitted when practicable; residential sections
and curves, 20 m.p.h.; congested areas, 15 m.p.h. No licenses required
for nonresidents over 16 yrs. of age provided driver has a home State
license. Hand signals must be used.
Warning: Persons charged with operating motor vehicles in Louisville
while drunk or under the influence of liquor upon conviction will be
fined $19 and sentenced to nine days' imprisonment. From such penal-
ties the law allows no appeals, age, sex, color or social pretensions not-
withstanding. Sternly enforced.
xxiii
6723-296723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
GENERAL INFORMATION
Prohibited: Operation of automobiles by persons under 16 yrs. of age
unaccompanied by person over 21 yrs. of age. Parking on highways
(see General Information for large cities for local traffic regulations).
Recreational Areas and Accommodations: Mammoth Cave National
Park (see Tours 7 and 6): two new modern hotels, rates from $1;
guides compulsory, available day and night, fee of $2 covers admission,
no tax; open all year; temperature in cave remains 54° F. throughout
year. Cumberland Falls State Park (see Tours 3 and 4), open
May 15-Oct. 1, overnight camping, 25^; State-owned DuPont Lodge,
rate per day from $2; Moonbow Inn, per day from $1.50; 15 cabins,
rate per day per couple $2, 75$ for extra lodgers; modern conveniences.
Butler Memorial State Park (see Tour 12), May 15-Oct. 1, boating
on Lake Butler 25^; fishing 25^; overnight camping 25$; cabins.
Columbus-Belmont State Park (see Tour 10): recreational facilities
and cabins. Levi Jackson Wilderness Road State Park (see Tour 4):
overnight camping 25^; fishing and swimming 25^; cabins, picnic
grounds, camping, all improvements. Pine Mountain State Park (see
Tour 4A): open-air auditorium, picnic grounds, observation tower.
Natural Bridge State Park (see Tour 2): Hemlock Lodge, cabins, auto
bridge. Audubon Memorial State Park (see Tours 8 and 16): shelter
houses, picnic tables, tearoom and lake. Dawson Springs State Park
(see Tour 14): picnic grounds, trails, shelter house. Blue and Gray
State Park (see Tour 20): golf links, cabins, shelter houses, picnic
tables and ovens, lake. Pioneer Memorial State Park (see Tours 5
and 15): museum, cabins in the fort, Lincoln Chapel. Blue Licks Bat-
tlefield State Park (see Tour 15): overnight camping 25^, museum,
open-air auditorium, trails. Cumberland National Forest: 992,605
acres; camps. Admission to recreational areas, adults 10^, children
5$f, except Pioneer Memorial State Park—adults 250, children 10^ and
Blue Licks Battlefield State Park—adults 15^ children 5^; Cumber-
land National Forest, no charge.
General Accommodations: Few in eastern Kentucky except in larger
towns; adequate elsewhere in State.
General Service for Tourists: AAA in larger towns, also Courier-Journal
in Louisville. When road conditions are doubtful, information should
be obtained at nearest filling station, especially in eastern Kentucky.
6723-306723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
GENERAL INFORMATION XXV
Poisonous Snakes and Plants: Rattlesnakes, copperheads, and cotton-
mouth moccasins are uncommon except in southern and northwest sec-
tion of the State and in cypress swamps. Poison ivy and poison sumac
common in wooded areas.
Climate and Equipment: Summer travelers should be prepared for very
warm weather, especially in July and August. Spring days are inter-
mittently cool and warm, with frequent showers and late snow flurries.
Topcoats needed. Winters generally cold, with heavy frosts and some-
times snow. In mountainous areas the snow glazes into dangerously
slippery ice and extreme caution is necessary, especially on the north
side of hills. Frozen dirt edges of mountain roads should be avoided.
Fish and Game Laws (digest): Game fish defined as black bass, trout,
crappie, rock bass or goggle-eye.
Open Season for Fishing: All months except May.
Fishing License: Nonresident, $2.50. Seven-day nonresident fishing, $1.
Limits: Black bass and trout limit, 10 per day, not more than 20 in
possession at one time; unlawful under 11 in. Crappie limit IS per
day; not more than 30 in possession at one time; unlawful under
eight in.
Open Season for Hunting (dates inclusive): Quail, Nov. 24-Jan. 9;
wild turkey and imported pheasant protected at all times, no open
season; doves, 12 M. to 6 P.M., Sept. 1-Dec. IS; woodcock, Nov. 15-
Dec. 31; jacksnipe, wild duck, and wild geese, State law in conflict
with Federal regulations—comply with Federal regulations. English
sparrows, great horned owl, sharp-shinned hawk, crow and crow-
blackbird, not protected; deer and elk protected at all times, no open
season; rabbit, Nov. 25-Jan. 9; squirrels, Aug. 1-Nov. 1; woodchuck
or ground hog, not protected; beaver, raccoon, mink, otter, skunk and
opossum lawful to kill Nov. IS-Dec. 31.
Hunting License: Nonresident, $10.50. Resident, $1.00.
Limits: Quail, 12 per day, season limit 75, penalty for violation $15
to $50 per quail; doves, 15 per day; woodcock, 6 per day, not over
24 in possession at one time.
6723-316723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--6723-326723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
Calendar of Events
(nfd means no fixed date)
Jan.
4th Mon.
nfd
nfd
Princeton
Louisville
Louisville
Feb.
3rd Mon.
Mayfield
Mar.
4th Mon.
Murray
Apr.
nfd
Bowling Green
nfd
Louisville
nfd
Louisville
nfd
Louisville
nfd
Louisville
nfd
Louisville
nfd
Louisville
nfd Lexington
nfd Morehead
nfd Murray
last wk or 1st
wk of May Louisville
May 1st Sun.
1st wk
2d wk
•2d Sat.
4th Sun.
Scottsville
Lexington
Louisville
Louisville
Benton
Farm Bureau Meeting
Band and Orchestra Clinic
Louisville Art Association
Exhibition
Mule Day
Mule Trading Day
Academic Music Festival
Physical Education Festival
Boy Scout Circus
Easter Monday Charity Ball
Junior League Fashion Show
Kentucky Education Asso-
ciation Meeting
State Spelling Bee (in con-
nection with K. E. A.
meeting)
Keeneland Races
Foster Festival
Academic Music Festival
Spring Meet at Churchill
Downs
Allen County Singing Con-
vention
University of Kentucky Gar-
den Day
Kentucky Derby Festival.
Kentucky Derby, Churchill
Downs ' sx
Old Southern Harmony Sing-
ing Festival
XXVll
6723-336723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
XXV111
May
CALENDAR OF EVENTS
June
Aug.
30
nfd
nfd
nfd
nfd
nfd
nfd
late May or
early June
7
12
15
2d Sun.
nfd
nfd
nfd
nfd
July 4
16
nfd
nfd
nld
Paducah
Kentucky
Bowling Green
Lexington
Louisville
Louisville
Pineville
Pineville
Frankfort
Springfield
Parksville
Near Ashland
Covington
Paducah
Beaver Dam
Louisville
Bardstown
Harrodsburg
2d or 3d wk Louisville
nfd Louisville
Crestwood
Louisville
Near Henderson
Sept. 2d or 3d wk Louisville
last wk
nfd
Quicksand
Louisville
Boy Scout Circus
State Federation of Music
Clubs Meeting
Music Festival
High School Music Contests
Garden Tours
Kennel Club Spring Show
Music Festival and Band
Concert
.Mountain Laurel Festival
Boone Day Celebration
Lincoln Marriage Festival
"Blessing of the Berries"
(festival in connection
with the raspberry crop)
American Folk Song Fes-
tival: Traipsin' Woman's
Cabin
Latonia Races
Strawberry Producers' Revel
Strawberry Carnival
Annual Board of Trade Out-
ing
Stephen Collins Foster Fes-
tival
Kentucky Pioneer Memorial
Celebration
Boat Regatta
State Tennis Tournaments
Kavanaugh Camp Meeting
Fall Market Week
Dade Park Races
State Fair, State Fair
Grounds
Fall Festival
Junior League Fashion Show
6723-346723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
CALENDAR OF EVENTS
XXIX
Sept. nfd
nfd
Oct. 1st wk
1st Sun.
last wk
nfd
nfd
Nov. 11
last wk
Dec, nfd
nfd
Middlesboro Tri-State Fair
Stanford Historical Pageant
Louisville No-jury Exhibition of Fine
and Practical Arts (for
Kentucky and Southern
Indiana)
Scottsville Allen County Singing Con-
vention
Louisville Fall Meet at Churchill
Downs
Barbourville Dahlia Show
Lexington Annual Trotting Races
Louisville Armistice Day Parade and
Celebration
Lexington Tobacco Festival
Louisville Associated Industries of
Kentucky Meeting
Richmond Oratorio Music Festival
6723-356723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--6723-366723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
Part I
Kentucky: The General
Background
6723-376723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--6723-386723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
KENTUCKIANS
KENTUCKY is far from being a unified region. Though known
as the Bluegrass State, it divides into three sections which
differ as sharply in geography, culture, economic activity, and social
habit as if they were widely separated areas. These are the Blue-
grass, the Eastern Mountains, and Western Kentucky. Each is popu-
lated by people who have adjusted themselves to their environment,
and who in the process have developed habits and attitudes differing
markedly from those of their fellows in the other divisions. Literature
concerning Kentucky often fails clearly to identify the section which
forms its locale, and readers unacquainted with local conditions are
apt to mistake a single section for the State as a whole.
Except for Louisville, Kentucky has no large industrial centers. Most
of its 2,900,000 people dwell in small rural communities. Like other
agrarian folk they bear the mark of their association with the soil. The
rural Kentuckian, whether clad in faded overalls or imported woolens,
is an individualist. The rustic lolling at the street corners of towns and
villages may give every evidence of being lost or out of place; but try
to get the better of him in a trade and often he will prove master of
the situation. He may be ragged, dirty, and ignorant, but he is still
endowed with something of the unawed self-reliance and resourceful
wit of the pioneer.
Wherever a Kentuckian may be, he is more than willing to boast of
the beauties and virtues of his native State. He believes without reser-
vation that Kentucky is the garden spot of the world, and is ready to
dispute with anyone who questions the claim. In his enthusiasm for his
State he compares with the Methodist preacher whom Timothy Flint
heard tell a congregation that "Heaven is a Kentucky of a place."
After describing the material and cultural well-being of the State, the
Kentuckian is likely to begin on its brilliant history. But, unless he is
engaged in historical research, the native son's history of Kentucky does
not chiefly refer to the part played by the State in the westward expan-
sion of the Nation, to the frontier democracy established by pioneer
6723-396723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
4 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
statesmen on Kentucky soil, or to the State constitution that was
framed at a time when it was difficult to gain majority approval for
any act of polity. The native son has not pursued his subject through
the trying decades of the nineteenth century, nor has he given much
thought to the State's role in the twentieth. History, to him, centers on
his family. When his ancestors crossed the Appalachians, the family
was the core of community life, and the Kentuckian has never lost sight
of the importance of his family attachment. His main personal concern
is his family's welfare. Many Kentuckians, especially women, spend
much time searching genealogical records, not to prove themselves
descended from prominent persons, but from sheer love of becoming
familiar with their personal pedigrees.
The Kentuckian's love of family is often illustrated in the way in
which politicians elected to office give public jobs to their kinsmen. In
many instances the victorious Kentucky politician honestly fails to
understand why there is anything blamable in such conduct. When a
kinsman needs a job, "nepotism" is only a word. And it is difficult to
place a limit on a Kentuckian's sense of kinsmanship. Parents, grand-
parents, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, and cousins are part of any
family pattern; but to the list of a Kentuckian's cousins there seems
no end. There are not only first and second cousins; there are cousins
even to the tenth degree removed. It is sometimes said that every
mountaineer is related to every other mountaineer; but the same ob-
servation applies to a considerable extent to people everywhere in the
State.
Next to his family, a Kentuckian's home community occupies the
place of importance in his fancy. When viewed from a national stand-
point the State itself is of major importance, but on his home ground
a Kentuckian never forgets his native county. He may move to Lexing-
ton, Bowling Green, or Louisville during his mature years, but he con-
tinuously looks with reverence upon the place of his birth. Visitors to
many Kentucky communities will be impressed hi finding there some
of the important relics of American history. Not only have local his-
torians and anthropologists collected important historical relics, but
they have also armed themselves with much historical information con-
cerning their community's place in history. A traveler can, if he is
lucky, locate the places where "D. Boon cilled a bar on this tree in
1760"; where John Fitch "invented" the steamboat; where Kit Carson
was born; where Joseph Bruen built a locomotive; where the first rail-
road of the West was built; where scores of battles were fought; where
6723-406723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
KENTUCKIANS 5
Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis were born; where "Uncle Tom"
was sold; where courthouses were scarred by bullets from feudists'
guns, and innumerable other points of interest. All of this colorful
background is grist to the local historians' mill, and it is used to good
advantage.
The average Kentuckian may appear a bit confused in his knowledge
of history, but he is firmly certain about current politics. Kentucky
cannot claim first place in political importance, but it tops the list in
its keen enjoyment of politics for its own sake. It takes the average
Kentuckian only a matter of moments to dispose of the weather and
personal health, but he never tires of a political discussion. Perhaps the
most obvious thing about Kentucky politics is the fact that there it is
a continuous campaign. Telegraph poles, fence posts, and trees are
seldom free of political posters. It is not at all unusual to see cam-
paign workers pulling the tacks out of old posters and using them in
nailing up new ones. If politics ceased to be practical, Kentuckians
would lose an excellent excuse for having community picnics, fried
chicken dinners, and fish fries. Even the famed Kentucky burgoo
would lose much of its flavor. Perhaps few indoor pastimes yield such
keen enjoyment as predicting the future turn of political affairs.
Notwithstanding the fact that its white population, like that of most
Southern States, is "Nordic," Kentucky's course in the Civil War was
unlike that of the South in general. The State persisted in remaining
neutral, while at the same time it contributed many soldiers to both the
Northern and the Southern armies. When the war ended, Kentucky
was left in a sharply divided state of mind. Where other Southern
States were unanimously Democratic, Kentucky's voters were divided
between the Democratic and Republican parties. This division still
prevails in varying degree, and at times lends an interesting complexion
to State politics.
In matters of culture Kentucky has been forced, with other Southern
States, to change its course completely. It was slow to adopt the idea
of public education, and it was not until after the Civil War that the
idea of common schools became thoroughly entrenched in the Kentucky
mind. There was no real antagonism to this idea before the war, but a
convincing precedent was lacking. When pioneer parents were rearing
large families on the frontier, they accepted the idea that their family
was solely their own responsibility, and that, if it was educated, they
had to pay the bill individually. Even yet there is opposition to public
schools on this ground. However, Kentucky has progressed to the
6723-416723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
6 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
point of accepting common schools as a necessity. Not only has the
public school experienced its most progressive years since the war, but
so, likewise, have institutions of higher learning. The University of
Kentucky is a post-war institution, and so are teachers7 colleges. Dur-
ing the past three decades the number of illiterates has been greatly
reduced. Where communities were once denied the privilege of public
education, they now have fairly well-equipped schools.
Where public schools have made rapid strides, other cultural agencies
have thrived. Towns and villages are establishing libraries and are
making available, through local and State agencies, literature which
heretofore had been denied to isolated readers. There are several insti-
tutions engaged in collecting and preserving historical materials and
Kentuckiana. These agencies are beginning to make up for the losses
which Kentucky has experienced in the past. Never before have Ken-
tuckians been so conscious of the cultural possibilities of their State.
Kentuckians have never neglected the pleasures of life. From the
time when his forebears hunted through the woods by day and danced
about the campfire at night, the Kentuckian has been a sporting,
pleasure-loving individual. Following the Civil War, travelers through
the State remarked that the trains were forever crowded with light-
hearted passengers either going to, or coming from, a dance. Racing,
baseball, and football have enjoyed considerable prestige. Horse racing
is accepted as a matter of fact. When natives of other States see Ken-
tuckians poring over racing forms on Saturday and crowding into
churches on Sunday, it is hard for them to understand the apparent
incongruity. Yet it is this devotion to both piety and pleasure which
is, perhaps, the most distinguishing characteristic of the people of
modern Kentucky.
6723-426723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
NATURAL SETTING
KENTUCKY, lying on the western slope of the Alleghenies, is
bounded on the north by the northern bank of the Ohio River,
on the northeast and southeast by West Virginia and Virginia, on the
south by Tennessee, and on the west by the Mississippi River. Its
greatest length, east to west, is 425 miles; its greatest breadth 182
miles. The total area is 40,-598. square miles, including 417 miles of
water surface.
"A peculiar situation exists at the extreme southwest corner," the
U. S. Geological Survey Bulletin 817 states, "where, owing to a double
bend in the Mississippi River, there is an area of about 10 square miles
belonging to Kentucky that cannot be reached from the rest of the
State without passing through a part of Missouri or Tennessee."
The State's topographic variations are mainly the result of slow or
rapid erosion, according to the degree of resistance encountered in par-
ticular rock strata. The mountains in the sandstone region, the occa-
sional deep gorges or underground drainage systems in the limestone
area, and the swamp flats and oxbow lagoons in the far western part
of the State, indicate the force, extent, and direction of erosive proc-
esses. Reelfoot Lake, in the far southwest, resulted from the earth-
quake of 1811-12. It is the only lake of importance in Kentucky,
although the edge of the Highland Rim Plateau in the southwest is
pocked with numerous small bodies of still water. These are sinkholes
which have choked with vegetable matter and retained the water that
drained into them.
The Ohio and Mississippi Rivers flow west and south, and form the
State's main drainage channel. The Cumberland River, except for a
small portion in the south-central region, the Big Sandy, the Licking,
the Kentucky, the Green, the Tradewater, and the Tennessee Rivers
follow the general northwest slope of the Allegheny Plateau. About
3,000 miles of river course are navigable.
Kentucky has six natural physiographic regions: (1) Mountain, (2)
7
6723-436723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
8 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
Knobs, (3) Bluegrass, (4) Pennyrile, (5) Western Coal Field, and (6)
Purchase.
The Mountain region, containing 10,450 square miles, is the remains
of a great westerly sloping plateau which has been cut by streams into
a region of narrow valleys lying between sharp ridges. The Cumber-
land and Pine Mountain ranges, near the southeastern border, are
"erosion" mountains carved from the upturned edges of hard sand-
stone. Between them lies the Middlesboro Basin, in which are the
State's highest mountains. Here are the Cumberland and Pine Moun-
tain ranges, with the Little and Big Black Mountain ranges between.
The highest point in the State is at Big Black Mountain, 4,150 feet
above sea level, in Harlan County on the southeastern boundary line.
To the west and northwest the mountain crests gradually lower until
they merge with the uplands of the Bluegrass and the Pennyrile; the
elevation drops from about 2,000 feet in the southeast to less than 800
feet along the western rim. The lowest point in the State is 257 feet
above sea level, near Hickman in Fulton County, at the extreme south-
west.
The larger streams in the Mountain region have some wide flood
plains with alluvial and rock terraces. Wind gaps, such as Cumberland
Gap, and the water gaps, like the Breaks of Sandy, are of frequent
occurrence. The surface rocks are sandstones and shales, with practi-
cally no limestones. The valley soils are deep and yield excellent crops.
Soils on the ridges are thin and easily washed away during cultivation.
The Knobs region is bounded on the inner side by the rolling Blue-
grass downs, and on the outer by the escarpments at the edge of the
mountain region in the east, and of the Pennyrile in the west. It has
the appearance of an irregular plain out of which rise many erosive
remnants of the Mountain and Pennyrile plateaus. The knoblike
shapes frequently seen in these remnants have suggested the name of
the region. The escarpments, also considered part of the Knobs, rise
from 200 to 500 feet above the drainage and cover an area of about
2,200 square miles. The Kentucky and the Ohio Rivers are the only
navigable streams here. The soils, composed largely of weathered
shales, erode rapidly when cultivated, and for this reason large areas
remain wooded. While not rich, they will yield good crops under
proper cultivation. The larger part of the Cumberland National Forest
lies in the eastern Knobs.
Within the encircling arms of the Knobs on one side, and the Ohio
River on the other, lies the Bluegrass region, about 8,000 square miles
6723-446723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
OHIO
EASTERN MOUNTAINS
.1936
gr V I R G I N I A
6723-456723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
io KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
in extent. It is a gently rolling upland, from 800 to 1,000 feet above
sea level. Almost everywhere it is cleared of its original forests and is
either cultivated or in pasturage. A few open, grass-swarded wood-
lands remain, especially around the more pretentious manors; and there
are uncleared glens and dells where the smaller streams fall rapidly
from the high downs to the main streams.
This region is divided into three sections, differentiated by their un-
derlying Ordovician limestone: the inner Bluegrass, the Eden shale belt,
and the outer Bluegrass. The first, about 2,400 square miles, has the
richest soils due to the underlying limestones with their high phosphate
content. Its surface is very gently rolling. The second, about 2,500
square miles, lies as a broad belt around the inner Bluegrass, and is
underlain by limestone not so rich in phosphorus, and with a large
shale and silica content. Its soils, while good, are easily eroded, pro-
ducing steep slopes and V-shaped valleys. The third is like the, first,
but the soils on the whole are not quite so rich.
The large area lying at the southern end of the central plain, of which
the Bluegrass region is the northern section, is known as the Pennyrile.
Pennyrile takes its name from the local pronunciation of Pennyroyal,
an annual plant of the mint family, which grows luxuriantly in this
region. It comprises about 7,800 square miles, and is separated from
the valleys of the western Knob and southern Mountain regions by an
escarpment which, in the Knob area, is called Muldraugh's Hill. The
eastern portions of the region rise 600 and 700 feet above sea level, but
they drop gradually on the west to about 400 or 500 feet, as they ap-
proach the Purchase in the southwest and the western coal fields along
the Ohio. The streams cut broad valleys except in the karst or sink-
hole areas, where only the larger streams flow on the surface.
The scenery of the Pennyrile is varied from gently rolling farm lands
to cliffs and scarps, and from open fields to forested rocky hillsides.
The sinkhole part of the region was originally known as the Barrens,
because the first settlers found it almost completely lacking in trees and
were unable to discover water for themselves and their stock. The lack
of trees was the result of continual forest burnings by the Indians to
make grasslands upon which the buffalo might feed, and the water
scarcity was caused by underground drainage. Neither condition re-
sulted from any barrenness of soil. After white men gained control of
the region, it was reforested.
Waters, either surface or underground, are abundant. In the under-
ground drainage courses are thousands of miles of subterranean pas-
6723-466723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
NATURAL SETTING II
sages including Mammoth Cave. The soils are principally residual,
varying from sandy and silt loams in the east to the limey, phosphorous
soils in the west. Frequent coatings of loess or windblown deposits are
found on the uplands, and alluvial clays or gravels along the Tennessee
and Cumberland Rivers.
The Western Coal Field, an area of about 4,680 square miles, is
bounded on the north by the Ohio River and elsewhere by the Penny-
rile. The region is characterized by sandstone and wooded ridges, rock
shelters, and cliffs. However, the proportion of level lands is so much
greater that the Western Coal Field in some places resembles the prairie
States. Some valuable timber remains and there are large areas in
which second growth timbers are flourishing. On the uplands the soil
is a yellow silt loam, thin where hilly, but deeper elsewhere. Trans-
ported soils cover the bottom lands.
The Purchase (2,369 square miles), so named from the fact that it
was bought from the Chickasaw Indians, is bounded by the Tennessee,
Ohio, and Mississippi Rivers, and the Tennessee State Line. The gen-
eral topographic relief is the lowest in the State. Gently rolling up-
lands and wide flood plains are the rule along the larger streams.
Stream bluffs, cypress swamps, oxbow lagoons, and an occasional deep
erosive gully are common sights. The soft rocks of the region erode
rapidly. Transported soils cover the Purchase except in a narrow strip,
just west of the Tennessee River, where residual soils are found.
Yellow-brown silt loam is prevalent.
The average annual rainfall in Kentucky is about 45 inches, which
places the State within the humid belt—so important for agriculture
and manufacturing. The climatic changes from north to south account
for a difference of approximately one week in the growing seasons. Pe-
riods of excessive rainfall or drought are rarely great enough to effect
serious damage to crops.
The climate of the whole State is temperate and healthful. The
mean annual temperature is around 60° F. In the summer months it
ranges from 75° F. in eastern Kentucky to 78° F. in the west; and in
the winter around 36° F. in all sections. Temperatures of 100° F. are
very rare, but marks of 80° F. and above have occurred even in mid-
winter. Below-zero temperatures occur with moderate frequency in
December, January, and February, and —28° F. has been experienced
twice in the eastern half during the past 60 years.
The last killing frosts generally occur from April IS to 23 and the
first from October 13 to 21. The growing season is from 174 to 189
6723-476723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
i2 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
days. In the eastern part of Kentucky the average number of rainy
days is about 118 a year—S to 9 in each of the fall months from Sep-
tember to November, inclusive, and 10 to 13 for each of the other
months. The average number of rainy days in the west is about 104,
of which the months from September to November inclusive have S
to 8, and the other months from 8 to 12.
Prevailing winds are from the south and southwest, with north and
northwest winds frequent in winter. Seven to ten miles is the average
hourly wind velocity.
Animal Life
The animal life of Kentucky is representative of areas as far apart
as the marshes of Louisiana and the forests of New England and
southern Canada.
Two large groups of fauna that once were common to the State have
now disappeared: prehistoric, or Pleistocene mammals, skeletons of
which have been found in various parts of the State but chiefly at Big
Bone Lick in Boone County; and species that were killed off or driven
away in the course of the settlement of the State. In the first class
were mastodons, mammoths, giant wolves, beaver, elk, and moose.
Early travelers and explorers were greatly impressed by the giant bones,
and often wrote extravagant stories about them. Even more interest
attaches to the animals that were almost fabulously plentiful when the
settlers came. The bison, or buffalo, grazed the central plains of the
Barrens and Bluegrass in numbers comparable with those of the Great
Plains west of the Mississippi. It is thought that this species disap-
peared from the State about 1820, soon after the settlement of the
Jackson Purchase. The beaver was less abundant here than farther
north, but it survived in small numbers until a generation ago. Hair-
raising stories are still told about the panther or puma (locally called
"painter"), once fairly common but now extinct in the State.
The wild turkey, still found in small numbers in remote places, par-
ticularly in the eastern mountains and other wooded sections, may be
re-established in the State and National parks and the larger forests
under proper protection. The area considered most suitable for this
6723-486723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
, . NATURAL SETTING 13
purpose in western Kentucky is the Coalings, a wild, wooded tract be-
tween the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers, now taken over by the
Federal Government.
Stories told about the passenger pigeon a hundred and more years
ago sound impossible today although "pigeon roost" is found in place
names in practically every part of the State. Alexander Wilson, in the
Shelbyville area, estimated in 1810 that he saw millions of birds in one
day. Audubon, in 1813, on his way to Louisville from Hardinsburg,
counted 163 flocks in 23 minutes. Enormous areas in the various parts
•of the State were used by this species for nesting places. Wilson de-
scribed one on the upper part of Green River, above the site of Greens-
burg; Audubon pictured another near the mouth of Green River not
far from Henderson.
Another species, long a mark for hunters and therefore almost de-
'stroyed, was the Carolina Louisiana parrakeet, which the Audubon
'societies are protecting in the Everglades of Florida. In earlier days
\his beautiful little parrot was found in abundance around sycamore
groves, salt licks, and fields of cockleburs. The ruffed grouse, hunted
intensively from the very beginning of the settlement, still exists in
small numbers. The prairie chicken, once found in many sections, dis-
appeared after the Barrens and the Jackson Purchase were opened to
settlement.
While game birds like the prairie chicken and the wild turkey soon
became scarce around the settlements, most of the songbirds have in-
creased enormously. In earlier days ravens also were common; now
only the wildest areas of the mountains harbor them. The chimney
swift and the nighthawk, on the other hand, have greatly profited by
"the coming of civilization. The swift, formerly nesting in hollow trees,
has thoroughly adapted itself to chimneys, and the Kentucky Ornitho-
logical Society has no record of any nesting in trees within the memory
of the present generation.
Almost 300 species of birds have been observed in Kentucky, most
of them in land habitations. The great marsh country on the Ken-
tucky-Tennessee border, north of Reelfoot Lake, is the breeding ground
of American egrets, great blue herons, snakebirds, double-crested cor-
morants, and other waterfowl. Huge flocks of waterfowl pass over
the State in their migrations, and can sometimes be seen on streams
and ponds. On a "wet-weather lake" near Bowling Green, observers
have counted 36 species of waterfowl.
Of the ISO to 175 species of birds found in Kentucky in an average
6723-496723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
14 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
year, about 15 are winter residents, including the white-throated and
white-crowned sparrows, the slate-colored junco, the golden-crowned
kinglet, and the yellow-bellied sapsucker. Numbered among the sum-
mer residents are the catbird, brown thrasher, bronzed grackle, crested
flycatcher, Bachman and grasshopper sparrows, and Kentucky and
yellow warblers. The shy warblers are represented by more than a
dozen types that spend the summer here. The mockingbird, bluebird,
cardinal, bluejay, Carolina chickadee, tufted titmouse, and towhee are
among the 35 to 40 well known species that remain throughout the
year.
The United States Bureau of Biological Survey states that "ob-
servers in the Mississippi Valley probably witness the passage of greater
numbers of varieties of birds than can be observed in any other river
valley of the world." The area south of the mouth of the Ohio River
is part of the great wintering grounds of the waterfowl; the Ohio
River from Louisville up as far as Catlettsburg is another concentration
area. Ornithologists at the Falls of the Ohio, at Louisville, have re-
corded in recent years nearly all the species of waterfowl that visit the
State. The migration routes follow the Ohio, Mississippi, and Tennes-
see Rivers; land birds, particularly the warblers, have another great
route through central Kentucky, a little to the east of Mammoth Cave,
along what the geologists call the Dripping Springs Escarpment.
Small mammals exist in surprisingly large numbers, especially in the
rocky areas. Red and gray foxes, minks, muskrats, raccoons, opossums,
red and gray squirrels, cottontail rabbits, marsh rabbits (in the Pur-
chase), and hosts of smaller species are found nearly everywhere. In
the Jackson Purchase the large marsh rabbit and an occasional otter
are still seen and in central Kentucky the woodchuck is common. The
caves are thickly populated with bats and many kinds of rodents.
Over a hundred species of fish have been found in Kentucky. Of
the game fishes, the one most closely identified with Kentucky (par-
ticularly the Barren and Green River section) is the muskallonge, known
locally as jackfish or jack salmon. Three of the bass group, the large-
and small-mouth and the Kentucky, are found throughout the State.
Many other fishes are widely distributed: the crappie, bluegill, rock
bass, drumfish or white perch, red horse, white sucker, and buffalo.
Two kinds of catfish—channel and blue—are often taken; some are
very large specimens. Among the species of interest principally to
ichthyologists are the eel, the spoonbill, the sturgeon, minnows of many
6723-506723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
I. THE NATURAL SETTING
6723-516723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--6723-526723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
BREAKS OF SANDY
6723-536723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--6723-546723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
CUMBERLAND GAP
KNOB COUNTRY
6723-556723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
KENTUCKY RIVER PALISADES
SKYLINE NATURAL BRIDGE, CUMBERLAND NATIONAL FOREST
6723-566723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
LOOKING UP THE OHIO TOWARD CLOVERPORT
THE KENTUCKY RIVER AT CAMP NELSON
6723-576723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
CCHO RIVER IN MAMMOTH CAVE
GOTHIC AVENUE IN MAMMOTH CAVE
6723-586723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
RUINS OF KARNAK IN MAMMOTH CAVE
6723-596723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
HMNEY ROCK, NEAR DANVILLE
6723-606723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
NATURAL SETTING 15
species, darters, and the several blind and semi-blind species of cave
fish.
The efforts of the State game and fish commission to safeguard and
restore wild life resources have met with much success. Stationed
everywhere are vigilant wardens, who not only protect game, but also
educate the people in the proper uses of woodland and streams.
The State has introduced deer, quail, and fish wherever conditions
seem favorable, and the Federal Bureau of Fisheries maintains a sta-
tion and breeding pond at Louisville, from which thousands of fish
are distributed annually throughout the State. In eastern Kentucky
the State has 12 game refuges where deer, bear, fur bearers, turkey,
ruffed grouse, and quail are propagated; and two fish hatcheries where
the species best adapted for the region are produced. In central Ken-
tucky are 22 game refuges for upland game birds, pheasants, and fur-
bearing animals, and one fish hatchery for black bass. The bass
hatchery at Herrington Lake was one of the first to produce black bass
under artificial conditions. In the near-famine years fish are seined
from the overflowed lands in the Purchase and distributed where
needed.
Amphibians, numerous and widely distributed, include the congo
snake or blind eel (Amphiuma means), several species of waterdogs
and salamanders, including the wicked-looking hellbender; bullfrogs,
green frogs, leopard frogs, many varieties of tree frogs, and two species
of toads. Common turtles are numerous, as are the alligator, snapping,
soft-shelled, pond, and land varieties, and the well-known box or
Carolina terrapin. Only four poisonous species of snake have been
recorded: the timber rattler, copperhead, cottonmouth, and coral. Of
these, the first two are widely distributed; the cottonmouth is appar-
ently confined to the Purchase, and the coral, a southern species, is
found only along the Tennessee border. Nonpoisonous snakes are
much more plentiful. The blacksnake and its near relatives, the pine,
the bull, and the chicken snake abound, and this is true also of the
king snake and several species of water snakes. The brown or fence
lizard, like the six line lizard or scorpion, is known everywhere. Less
known are the several varieties of skinks and the fabulous glass or
joint snake, which can shed its tail when attacked. All the lizards are
useful and harmless. Several species of crawfish, clams, and snails
are known to most fishermen and hunters.
6723-616723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
16 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
Plant Life
Kentucky flora ranges from sub-boreal in the Eastern Mountains to
semi-tropical in the Mississippi River bottoms. Each of the State's six
topographic and geologic regions has its peculiar type of flora; and in
each of these regions are minor floral divisions, resulting from varia-
tions in elevation, moisture, soils, exposure, and the work of man.
The most varied plant life occurs in the Eastern Mountains, where
clearing and cultivation have not disturbed the native flora. Here are
found the large-leafed rhododendron, azalea, blueberry, huckleberry,
ferns in great profusion, and the magnolia. Throughout the highland
region the rhododendron is at its loveliest in June; and in this month,
over all the rockier parts of the mountains, the mountain laurel or
calico-bush is in bloom. Perhaps the loveliest flower in the mountains
is the great laurel, or mountain rosebay (Rhododendron catawbaiense),
which covers hill and cliff with bell-shaped, rose-purple flowers, seen in
full bloom only in the protected ravines of the Pine Mountains.
Four species of magnolia—the great-leafed, the small-leafed cucum-
ber tree, the ear-leafed, and the umbrella tree—bloom in late May or
early June. The waxy gloss of their leaves and their huge, but delicate,
pure white, sweet-scented blossoms give them a tropical appearance.
Again in the fall they catch the eye with their crimson seed cones.
An aberrant member of the magnolia family, the tulip tree, called
yellow poplar in Kentucky, grows in all parts of the State. In May
and June it produces dainty chalices of green, tinted with orange.
Because of its value for lumber, the supply of larger specimens has
been depleted.
In May and June the mountains bloom with trillium, bloodroot,
bluebell, wildginger, dogtooth violet, sour-wood, firepink, mosspink,
groundpink, violet, bluet, dogwood, crab apple, dwarf-iris, yellow and
pink lady-slipper, and dozens of other species. From early summer
to the first frosts, the long growing season brings from blossom to
maturity the wild strawberry, serviceberry, haw, wild grape, persim-
mon, and papaw. Edible nuts for winter consumption include the
6723-626723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--6723-636723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
212 CITIES AND TOWNS
in 1897 by John E. Madden, and since owned and operated by his son
J. E. Madden, Jr. The estate, consisting of approximately 2,700 acres
and extending several miles along the highway, was named for Ham-
burg, a great thoroughbred, which, after being successfully campaigned
30 years ago, stood after his retirement with pronounced success. Since
1929 Hamburg Place has been important for the breeding of polo
ponies.
At Hamburg Place have been foaled and bred six Kentucky Derby
winners—the largest number to come from any one nursery. Plaudit,
the first of these, won the Kentucky Derby of 1898 (l1/^ m.) in what
was then the creditable time of 2:09.
Behind the unpretentious green-trimmed white frame residence is the
old-fashioned barn in which were foaled and bred the other five Ken-
tucky Derby winners. Old Rosebud, the second Madden Derby win-
ner, after establishing a reputation when a two-year-old, went to the
post in the 1914 Derby as a favorite and ran the distance handily in
2:03%, a new track record. Old Rosebud was a frequent winner in
high class company after taking the purse at Churchill Downs, until,
as an aged horse, patched up and returned to the turf following a
breakdown, he met with a fatal accident during a race in the East. Sir
Barton, winner of the Kentucky Derby in 1919, was the last of the
great Star Shoots and the only maiden performer ever to win this stake.
Although Sir Barton's time was slow (2:09%) due to an off track, he
demonstrated his class later in the mojnth by winning the Preakness in
Maryland. Paul Jones, a fine mudder, won the Kentucky Derby in
1920 over a heavy track (2:09). Zev, the fifth Derby winner, was
by the successful Madden sire, The Finn, from the good race mare,
Miss Kearney. Zev, possessed of a high flight of speed, was also a
superior mud runner. For the Derby of 1923 he turned in the fair
time of 2:05%. Zev defeated the great English colt, Papyrus, in
their $100,000 match race in the East in 1924, and In Memoriam at
Churchill Downs later. Flying Ebony, another son of The Finn also
ridden to victory by the much-publicized jockey, Earle Sande, won the
Kentucky Derby of 1925 over a sloppy track in 2:07%.
The stables of Hamburg Place are empty except in winter when polo
ponies are quartered here.
NANCY HANKS HORSE GRAVEYARD (30) 4.1 m. (R), sur-
rounded by a horseshoe-shaped field-stone fence, is the burial ground
of a dozen horses that made John E. Madden famous as a breeder.
Nancy Hanks, considered one of the greatest trotters that ever lived,
is buried in the center of the plot. A stone monument, topped with a
miniature statue of the great mare, stands over her grave. Eleven other
noted harness horses and thoroughbreds are buried in a semicircle
around the Nancy Hanks monument. Of these Plaudit is perhaps the
best remembered. The others are Hamburg Belle, noted trotting mare,
Ida Pickwick, Imp. Star Shoot, famed mostly as a successful sire of
brood mares, Lady Starling, Ogden, Major Delmar, Siliko, Silikon,
and Imp.
6723-646723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
LEXINGTON 213
At 4.5 m. is the junction with Hume Rd. The main route of the tour
turns L. here.
Right (straight ahead) on US 60, 0.6 m. to (31) the IROQUOIS HUNT AND
POLO CLUB (open May or June to September 1) entered (R) through iron
gates bearing silhouetted figures of polo players. The landscaped grounds of the
club include four polo fields—one for exhibition matches, another as a practice
field for men, a third for women, and the fourth field for children.
Polo ponies are drawn from the best blooded and mixed stock obtainable, using
sires and dams of all three light horse breeds. Nimble, intelligent native mares,
bred to thoroughbred, trotter, or saddle horse sires, produce a high proportion of
colts having the desired qualities, and Western ponies have been crossed upon thor-
oughbreds. Polo ponies range in weight up to 1,400 pounds, and the qualities de-
manded are good bone, intelligence, quick action, and sure-footedness. Matches,
open to the public, are frequently played here.
Left on Hume Rd., at 7 m. is the junction with Bryan Station Pike;
R. on Bryan Station Pike to the junction with Johnston Rd., 9.3 m.;
L. on Johnston Rd.
On Johnston Rd. is (32) (L) LLANGOLLEN (Welsh, pronounced
Thlangothlen), 10.3 m., which has a color motif of white trimmed in
black. This 273-acre farm, owned by John Hay Whitney, is one of the
three Whitney horse farms in the Bluegrass. At the head of this stud
for seven years was Imp. Royal Minstrel, a gray, many of whose get
are of that color. This horse, returned to England in the latter part
of 1938, was campaigned in America and is said to have won more for
his American owner than his purchase price of $75,000. His victories
on English courses include the Eclipse, Craven, Cork and Orrery Stakes,
and the Victoria Cup. Here also is standing the Bonnie Scotland
thoroughbred, The Porter. This horse, a small chestnut and a superior
performer in "sloppy" going, was owned when in training and for some
time after his retirement by E. B. McLean of Washington. Somewhat
like Ferdinand the Bull, The Porter, a dignified old gentleman, is fasci-
nated by butterflies, but despises dogs, cats, and roosters. It is esti-
mated that his get have won more than $1,350,000. The Porter sired
Toro, a bay from Imp. Brocatelle, in 1925, who as a three-year-old was
just about the shiftiest of his age. Although Toro's turf career was
short his winnings amounted to $142,530.
Johnston Rd. runs to a dead end at its junction, 10.8 m., with US
27-68, which is here called the Paris Pike. Right on US 27-68.
The C. V. WHITNEY FARM (33) 11.4 m. (open 11-4, February-
June 20: no specific hours at other times), its yellow buildings (R)
forming a striking contrast with the green landscaped grounds, is
entered from the Paris Pike. The 900-acre estate has 11 well-built
and ventilated barns including three for stallions (one of them floored
with cork), a two-story frame cottage, and a two-story stone farm office
building (L), and a one-mile training course. About a mile from the
entrance, in a wooded area near one of the stallion barns, is the ceme-
tery where Broomstick, Peter Pan, Whiskbroom II, Prudery, Regret—
only filly ever to win the Kentucky Derby—Pennant, and the great
Equipoise (d. 1938) are buried.
6723-656723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
i8 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
chestnut, chinquapin (both rare today), beechnut, hazelnut, walnut,
and hickorynut.
Visitors to the Bluegrass region who expect to find the color of its
famous grass blue in the summer months are disappointed. Only in
May do the blue anthers of its blossoms give the grass a distinctly
steel-blue tint. It grows luxuriantly in the limestone phosphorus soils
of the Bluegrass region and sporadically in the limestone soils of the
Pennyrile but does not prosper elsewhere. In its chosen habitat blue-
grass is unequaled as turf and for pasturage, but it is rarely cut for
hay. On many farms in central Kentucky it is grazed every month of
the year.
Few untouched wild spots are left in the Bluegrass region. Park-like
lawns and open, grassy woodland patches surround the farm houses;
but along steep banks and in the deep dells much of the original flora
of the region survives. Here, in spring, are hidden the purple trillium,
springbeauty, dwarf-iris, pink catchfly, bloodroot, stonecrop, columbine,
and ferns of every sort. Dogwood and redbud spread their lacy, tinted
draperies over the vernal slopes. Later in the summer, purple, white,
and blue asters and hosts of other blossoms cover the rocks and find
foothold in every pinch of soil between them. In the fields and open
places goldenrod vies with bridal-wreath aster in the autumn. Along
the streams the artichoke, a sunflower with edible roots, and the golden-
glow, very like the artichoke in size and color, cover the bottom lands
and banks with gold. Tall purple composites, the ironweed and
meadow beauty (deer grass), grace the open woodlands or low meadows.
In the Eden shale soils of the Bluegrass several species of red-haw
flourish; these are white with blossoms in the spring, and in the fall
are hung with the red berries that children string into long necklaces
and belts. When unmolested the red-haw grows from ten to twenty
feet high, but cattle browse it to the size of bushes, a fact that suggests
their usefulness as hedges.
Old fields in the acid soils and even in the more alkaline soils of the
Pennyrile are sometimes covered with clumps of broomsedge, a grass-
like plant that grows green in the spring and brown in autumn. When
growing thick, it looks like a field of grain and is eaten sparingly by
the livestock. Farmers consider it a pest, however, and often burn
over patches of the weed.
Everywhere are the climbing vines—grapes, wistaria, trumpetvine,
Virginia creeper, and poison ivy. Poison ivy, which smothers fence
posts along the highways, grows rankly wherever it finds support. Its
6723-666723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
NATURAL SETTING 19
three-fingered compound leaves, greenish flowers, and white berries are
easily identified, especially in the morning when the plant is covered
with dew.
Western Kentucky may be divided into two broad floral grounds: the
upland division, represented by hill or knob land; and the lowland or
river valley division. The upland flora, although more widely dis-
tributed, is less luxuriant than that of the lowland. Extensive ranges
of oak forests cover many of the knobs, their rich green foliage making
a shady habitat for herbaceous plants. Early spring bedecks these
forests with the golden yellow buttercup, the toothwort, springbeauty,
and the delicate rue anemone. The birdsfoot violet, the most beautiful
native kind, often carpets a gravelly knoll.
Deep, moist ravines are canopied by sugar maple and beech, where
the rich humus yields the trim wake-robin, in tones of brown and
green, and the ever popular Indian turnip (Jack-in-the-pulpit). The
bloodroot, bellwort, Solomon's-seal, Greek valerian, waterleaf, wild
sweet William, butterfly weed, trout lily, numerous violets, and other
plants furnish a continuous sequence of blossom in the spring. Perhaps
the greatest beauty of these woods is at the flowering time of the
dogwood and redbud, everywhere abundant.
In summer the dryness of the soil in this area reduces the number
of flowering plants. For the most part, plants either make their growth
and flower in the spring, or wait until the approach of autumn. Then
the roadsides are bordered with goldenrod, the royal purple ironweed,
and the sky-blue wild ageratum. Entire fields are covered with a sea
of gold as the yellow tickseed comes into flower. Several species of
asters herald the approach of frost, as the hills are transformed almost
overnight into masses of glowing color.
The overflow lands of the lowland area support a tropical luxuriance
of vegetation, particularly in the wooded parts. Trees attain a larger
growth here than in the uplands. Nearly all the eastern North Ameri-
can oaks are represented, even the southern willow oak, and there are,,
in addition, several varieties of hickory (including the pecan), species
of ash, besides the maple, willow, cottonwood, sycamore, sweetgum,
blackgum, and many others. The picturesque river birch, with its thin,
papery bark hanging in shreds, stands out in bold contrast to the
smooth silver maples with which it often grows.
Early spring flowers are not abundant, but summer and fall bring a
wealth of color as the Indian pinks, the milkweeds, ruellia, cardinal
flower, great blue lobelia, spider lily, and aster and goldenrod come into
6723-676723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
ILLINOIS
TO
•fl3P
i(
VVi
oHjg^
"SBT?
™v
, J^^J/yfSSr
HEWRSOVPSVJ/^
slyffoWENSBORO HARDI*NSBURG>
'•[SB ^ A
^Tj^jL ^
ICALHOUN V ***
" vt=VA
S V+mj4 X..
, HARTFORD O'L^ *" M^^-T'
^MTSTJOSEPH f
COLLEGE I
^fj53C^^ v^
GREENVILLE x , ......
\ rD
)MORGANTOU
6723-686723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
PENNYRILE
AND
WESTERN COAL FIELDS
1938
JCAUE OF MILES
6723-696723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
22 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
prolific flower. Marshy places are fringed with the swamp rose, hal-
berd-leafed hibiscus, swamp privet, and button bush, and covered with
yellow pond lily and lotus. The Ohio, Mississippi, and lesser rivers, by
their meanderings, have formed numerous oxbow lakes that furnish
ideal conditions for the spread of the bald cypress. These beautiful
trees, with their "knees" protruding from the surface of the water,
often cover large areas. Festoons of catbird grape hang from the
lower branches and climb over the smaller shrubs, extending to the
water's edge.
Kentucky lies in the great hardwood forest region between the Alle-
ghenies and the western prairies. Before white settlement, three-fourths
of the State was covered with forests unsurpassed in eastern North
America for the size of individual trees and the density of the cover.
Giants six, eight, and ten feet in diameter were not uncommon. The
larger varieties were yellow poplar (tulip tree), sycamore, oak, chest-
nut, and walnut. It is told that some of the hollow sycamores were
so large that families were known to have camped in them until they
could build cabins. Today not over one-fourth of the State can be
called forested and very little of this is primeval, nearly all having
been cut over for timber.
Their attractiveness and the ease of settlement upon them led to the
early clearing of limestone lands in the Bluegrass region. Today
about 90 percent of these lands are denuded. The western limestone
lands of the Pennyrile and the delta lands of the Purchase are about
30 percent forested. The most densely forested areas, amounting to
60 or 70 percent of the area, are in the valleys of the Big Sandy, Upper
Licking, Kentucky, and Cumberland Rivers, all in eastern Kentucky.
In the latter area the timber is chiefly composed of oak, chestnut, and
yellow poplar; in the rest of the State it runs to oak and hickory,
except along the lower Ohio and the Mississippi flood plains, where
hardwoods peculiar to river bottoms prevail.
Kentucky's forests have brought their owners considerable wealth,
but commercial exploitation was practically at an end by the close of
the last century. Today the State's forests are still producing mod-
erately, but not as they did when great sawmills stood on all the
larger streams and logs by the millions floated down in the spring and
fall freshets. As most of the steeper land in Kentucky is better adapted
to the production of trees than to other uses, the tendency is to con-
serve forest stands and to cut the timber scientifically, but no thorough
State-wide system of conservation has been adopted. Only in one or
6723-706723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
I L L I N O I S
SMITHLAND
ANCIENT
SKSffiSb
WICKL1FFE
B AR DWELL.
— HUNTING
^.AIRPORT
. WOOLD RIDGE
* MONUMENTS
MAYFIELD
*•— HUNTING
REEL-FOOT
GAME FARM
COLUMBUS
TEN
THE
JACKSON
PURCHASE
1938
6723-716723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
24 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
two small areas is reforestation being attempted, where some of the
private landholding companies and individual owners have begun to
reforest their cut-over lands. The establishment of the Cumberland
National Park in eastern Kentucky offers the greatest promise of forest
conservation. This park will contain over a million acres, of which
much is forested, and the rest already is being replanted. The Federal
example points to the necessity for a State forest policy that will in-
crease timber resources, offer a measure of protection against the too
rapid run-off of storm water, and restore the natural balance in wild
life which reckless exploitation has destroyed. -
Geology and Paleontology
The oldest outcropping rock formations in Kentucky are of the
Mid-Ordovician period, an early division of the Paleozoic era, hun-
dreds of millions of years ago when only the simplest forms of marine
life existed. Cambrian rocks, those from the earliest period of the
Paleozoic, are exposed nowhere in the State, but from a deep well
drilled at Nicholasville in Jessamine County fossil remains of trilobites,
small oval-shaped marine animals, known to have lived in the Cam-
brian, have been taken.
The Ordovician period, when shell-forming sea animals flourished,
is well represented in both surface and subsurface formations. In the
vast ocean covering this region lived sponges, corals, moss animals,
brachiopods, sea lilies, chambered shells (cephalopods), primitive forms
of snails (gastropods), clams (pelecyrods), and buglike creatures, the
trilobites. Tiny gastropods, Cyclora minuta, were so numerous that
their fossil remains in the limestone have been mined as phosphate
rock. The lime and phosphorus of these shell-forming sea creatures
account in large measure for the fertility of Kentucky soils, especially
of the Bluegrass region, with which the Ordovician deposits are prac-
tically co-extensive. The limestone and shales of this area are esti-
mated to be half a billion years old.
Through the massive limestone of Central Kentucky the Kentucky
River and its tributary, the Dix River, have cut deep gorges. Gently
6723-726723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
NATURAL SETTING 25
rolling hills, occasional caverns, sinkholes, and countless springs are
phenomena resulting from erosion and internal water drainage.
At the beginning of Silurian time—following the Ordovician age and
lasting a relatively brief twenty-five million years—an ancient sea in-
vaded Kentucky from the Gulf of Mexico, permitting the immigration
of southern types of corals, crinoids (a class to which sea lilies be-
long), and simple shellfish. About the middle of that age the waters
of the North Atlantic invaded the area, bringing many new forms.
In this complex of older life forms and newer developing ones are
1 found chain corals, honeycomb corals, cup corals, and organ-pipe corals
—all named for peculiarities of shape, crinoids of many kinds, and
new species of shellfish. Trilobites were on the decline and disap-
peared during the Pennsylvanian period.
The limestones of the Devonian, the next period, have preserved
about the same number of genera of corals, crinoids, and brachiopods
as are found in the Silurian. Cephalopods, with chambered shells, and
the mosslike and branching bryozoans are common. During this age,
which is marked by the rise of fishes and the appearance of am-
phibians, there were sharks in Kentucky's waters; the ostracoderm,
a great fishlike creature, has left its remains. The oldest known land
flora also made its appearance on Devonian lands.
Considerably more than a fourth of Kentucky is underlaid by lime-
stones, shales, and sandstones of the Mississippian system. These
formations date from the beginning of the Carboniferous period,
which was to last somewhat over one hundred million years and ex-
hibit a flora of primitive scale trees, tree ferns, huge mosses, early
forms of flowering plants and, from this world of luxuriant vegeta-
tion, the development of amphibians. Among the new creatures was
a genus called Archimedes, so named from its resemblance to the
screw of Archimedes. From the stem of this living screw, lacy cur-
tains extended, inhabited by thousands of microscopic bryozoan ani-
mals. Fossils of the decorative Pentremites, the so-called fossil "hick-
ory nut," are found in abundance in some of the limestones in the
Pennyrile. Fossil sharks' teeth are the only evidence of vertebrates
of the period in Kentucky.
The limestones of the Mississippian period are responsible for the
odd feature of the landscape known as the Land of Ten Thousand
Sinks, with its extensive subterranean drainage. From the evidence
of existing river channels, cutting deeply through Mississippian strata
and subsequently filled with sandstone of the Pennsylvanian period, it
6723-736723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
26 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
may be deduced that the Mississippian period witnessed a vast uplift
followed by a subsidence of the region.
The Pennsylvanian, or great coal age, is represented in the surface
formations of both the eastern and western coal fields of Kentucky.
These are sandstones, shales, occasional limestones, and numerous coal
seams. The lower sandstone outcrops along the outer edges of both
areas and has been sculptured by erosion into natural bridges, rock
castles, and water falls. Natural Bridge and Cumberland Falls are
notable among these. The Pennsylvanian shales in places bear the
imprint of the abundant plant life of the period. The shale roofs of
some of the coal mines are decorated with fossil tree trunks, showing
bark patterns and the traces of leaves. The sandstones also exhibit
the Lepidodendrons, Sigillaria, and other coal-forming trees, a flora
that vanished with the end of the Carboniferous period in its last
stage, the Permian. The animal fossils of the Pennsylvanian resem-
bles those of the Mississipian.
The close of the Paleozoic era, an eon of some 350 million years,
saw the rise of the ancient lofty Appalachian Mountains, of which the
ancestral Pine and Cumberland Mountains formed western outposts.
So far as Kentucky is concerned, there is a hiatus in the rock rec-
ord, extending from the end of the Paleozoic to the last period of the
Mesozoic. Triassic, Jurassic, and Commanchean rocks do not occur,
and those of the Cretaceous period show no marine fossils. Dinosaurs
or other spectacular creatures of this age of reptiles may have wan-
dered into the area during this time, but neither fossil remains nor
footprints have been found.
The Tertiary period, which introduced the age of mammals, found
the Purchase Region of coastal plain bordering an enlarged Gulf of
Mexico. Cassias, figs, maples, laurels, oaks, walnuts, willows, papaws,
gums, yews, hickories, and other contemporary flora thrived. In
these forests roamed the giant ground sloth, giant wolves, and other
carnivora.
The Quaternary includes the quite recent glacial period, traces of
which (in the Illinoian stage) are found ten to twenty miles south of
the Ohio, from the Big Sandy to the Kentucky Rivers. Louisville, in
part, and other cities of the northern border are built on a glacial Ohio
River outwash of sand and gravel. Big Bone Lick in Boone County
is named from the leg bones of mammoth and mastodon that mired
down at this place. It is possible that cave dwellers lived and hunted
6723-746723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
NATURAL SETTING 27
at the edge of the slowly retreating ice cap. In any event, within a
few thousand years man made his appearance in the forests of this
region and the modern era was ushered in.
There are geological and paleontological collections in the Univer-
sity of Kentucky at Lexington, in the Louisville Free Public Library,
and in many other Kentucky institutions of higher learning.
6723-756723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
ARCHEOLOGY AND
INDIANS
THE MANY mounds, forts, cave shelters, and burial fields in Ken-
tucky show that the prehistoric population must have been fairly
large for savages. It was diverse in culture and probably had many
separate origins.
Aboriginal remains are found in every county in the State. The
eastern mound area covers the heart of the Bluegrass region and ex-
tends northeastward to the Ohio River. This fertile and well watered
land was heavily timbered in prehistoric times. It is characterized
archeologically by the great number and large size of its Indian mounds,
many of them associated with village sites, and by other structures
which have been called forts. The popular notion that the mound
builders were a race differing from the American Indians has no facts
to support it. They were doubtless the ancestors of some of the his-
toric Indians.
The mounds were originally of various shapes and sizes but have
been altered through weathering and the changes caused by agriculture.
This is especially true of mounds which were not high and stand in
cultivated fields. With each plowing the earth has been removed from
the top and spread out at the base until the original shape has been
destroyed. Often the surface for many yards around is strewn with
flints, bones, and broken pottery upturned by plow and harrow.
Some of these mounds were constructed centuries ago; others are
quite recent. Certain tribes of modern Indians were building mounds
when the first whites arrived. Sometimes intrusive burials indicate
that later tribes used the mounds after the original builders had dis-
appeared. All mounds were not used for the same purpose—they were
erected for ceremonial or sacrificial purposes, or for the burial of the
dead; and some perhaps represent nothing more than the dirt roof of
a lodge or the gradual accumulation of camp refuse.
The remains of camp and village sites, usually found in the vicinity
of mounds, are often extensive and show long occupancy. The fea-
tures by which a site is recognized is the sporadic occurrence of broken
28
6723-766723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--6723-776723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--6723-786723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
DANIEL BOONE'S ARRIVAL WITH NORTH CARC
MURAL IN POST OFFICE, LEXINGTON
6723-796723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
LINCOLN MEMORIAL, NEAR HODGENVILLE
6723-806723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
PIONEER MEMORIAL, HARRODSBURG
BIRTHPLACE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN, MEMORIAL
6723-816723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
OLD CAPITOL, PRANKPORT
6723-826723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
THE CAPITOL, FRANKFORT
OLD FAYETTE COUNTY COURTHOUSE, LEXINGTON
fefg^iffijipll
6723-836723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
INTERIOR FEDERAL HILL, "MY OLD KENTUCKY HOME/ NEAR BARDSTOW
FEDERAL HILL, "MY OLD KENTUCKY HOM
6723-846723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
.1
ASHLAND, HOME OF HENRY CLAY, LEXINGTON
JOHN HUNT MORGAN.HOME, LEXINGTON
6723-856723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
JEFFERSON COUNTY COURTHOUSE, LOUISVILLE
6723-866723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
ARCHEOLOGY AND INDIANS 2Q
bits of flint artifacts, potsherds, or bone fragments scattered over the
surface. The midden of a village is usually one foot deep, though it
may attain a depth of several feet.
The life of the mound builders may be reconstructed, to some extent,
from the artifacts found in the mounds. Agriculture is shown in the
hoes; fishing in the fishhooks and fish scales; hunting in the bones of
many a beast; sports in the almost obliterated race tracks and play-
grounds; child-like vanities in the personal ornaments; industry in
the laboriously fashioned tools and in the carved pipes and gorgets.
The rock shelter area extends throughout the knobs and eastern
mountains and swings south and west of the Bluegrass to portions of
west central Kentucky having a similar topography. In this area
erosion has formed many vertical cliffs from 50 to 200 feet high in
which are rock shelters, known locally as rock houses. Numbers of
these shelters are several hundred feet long and from 30 to 60 feet
high, and many are quite dry. Into these, primitive man carried wood
for fire and animals for food. Ashes and bones have accumulated in
layers sometimes 10 feet deep. Each layer contains a record of con-
temporary life and is well preserved, for no. water has entered the
shelters and the dry ashes have prevented bacterial action. Bone,
shell, gourd shards, textiles and leather have been found in excellent
condition.
Not all the sites are of the same age, nor do all have the same amount
of accumulated debris; but the series of artifacts, burial customs, and
apparent steps in the development of culture are so nearly identical
in the shelters investigated that it is reasonable to suppose that all
have a similar story of occupancy.
The western Kentucky rock shelter area embraces the headwaters
of the Green River and extends northward to the Ohio River. The
cliff shelters found here differ from those in the cliff dwelling area.
They are merely overhanging rock strata or ledges of sandstone or
limestone, offering protection over a relatively small space. The cliffs
are usually not more than 30 feet high, and the actual shelters, while
numerous, are individually small—no larger than would meet the need
of a single family. The shelters were often so small that the ashes had
to be periodically swept out, and their accumulation formed a talus at
the foot of the cliff below, which grew deeper and broader as occupancy
continued. Burials of men, women, and children were often made in
the ashes and debris swept from the shelter. There is no known evi-
dence of cremation. Bone and shell were used extensively; a few slate
6723-876723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
30 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
pendants, shell and bone beads, and other ornaments have been found.
The distinguishing feature of the sandstone sites is the hominy hole
used for grinding corn. At every site, from one to five or six of these
conical holes are found either in the shelter floors or in large sand-
stone boulders. A hominy hole is from four to ten inches in diameter
at the top, tapering to perhaps three inches at the bottom and varying
in depth from one to three feet. Associated with the hominy hole is
a bell-shaped pestle, lashed to a staff several feet long, and used pointed
end downward, with which the corn was ground by percussion. A
number of pestles were left in these hominy holes by their users. Crude
hoes, the hominy holes, and pestles suggest a horticultural people.
They are not to be distinguished from the rock shelter dwellers of the
eastern mountains, and their cultural connections are uncertain.
The cliff dwellings were in continuous use from a remote period until
the advent of white men. The lowest ash beds have no pottery of any
kind, no flint implements, and only the crudest forms of hammer-
stones; large broken animal bones, mingled with mussel shells, nut
hulls, and fish scales, form a considerable portion of the refuse. Upper
or later levels show gourd shards, grooved axes, and very crude lime-
stone hoes, indicating the beginning of agriculture. Woven textiles and
moccasins of both textiles and leather have also been found in the
upper layers. Crude potsherds occur only in the top six inches of the
ash, and a few sites have yielded paddle-marked shards. The cliff
dwellers used shells as spoons and scrapers, and made a characteristic
bone awl from the shoulder blade of the deer.
Many burials of women and children occur in the ash beds, but such
burials did not prevent later occupancy of the site. Although dozens
of ash beds have been investigated and scores of bodies of women and
children have been found, there is no evidence of a burial of an adult
male. The question of what was done with deceased adult males may
have been answered by the discovery, in one site in Wolfe County, of
some 57 artifacts associated with the almost entirely burned bones of
what appears to have been an adult male. These bones and artifacts
are preserved, just as found, in the museum of the University of Ken-
tucky. Future investigation may show that adult males were cremated.
In the southeastern mountain area are many mounds, but they are
not as numerous as in the neighboring central mound area. Here, too,
are rock shelters in which the aboriginal people lived and left artifacts.
Plowed fields have yielded artifacts of flint and other stones and
vestiges of villages may be seen in a few places. The soil was capable
6723-886723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
ARCHEOLOGY AND INDIANS 31
of producing maize abundantly but the roughness of the country doubt-
less interfered with settlement.
An area embracing a portion of north central Kentucky includes
evidence of aborigines of unknown cultural affinities. This occupation
is indicated by burial sites containing stone cists of two to six burials,
usually situated on high hill crests. The graves are covered with a
double row of flat stones set on edge and touching each other at the
top. Other stones are then leaned against this first row, and some-
times an area of 10 feet square is covered with sloping stones.
Along part of the Ohio River in Kentucky are a few larger mounds
associated with village sites, some of which have yielded material of
Fort Ancient culture; this would be expected from its contact with the
Fort Ancient area in Ohio and with the eastern mound area in Ken-
tucky, to the eastward. The Fort Ancient culture is probably Siouan.
Kentucky caves were inhabited by prehistoric man, but how far he
dates back in time is, at present, an unanswerable question. The term
"cave dwellers" is used to designate those ancient people whose remains
are found in caves and who apparently lived in them. Primitive man
could hardly have found a more satisfactory type of shelter. The part
of the cave near the mouth was commonly occupied, and caves which
had good rooms close to the entrance were favorite dwelling places.
The inhabitants also used the most remote passages, for in the deepest
and most inaccessible chambers they left evidence of their presence.
The caves, like the mounds, represent more than one group of people.
After one group deserted them, a new group would move in.
The reason for burial in the caves may have been religious belief,
or long-established custom, or a desire to protect the graves, or merely
the fact that the floor of the cave was never hard or frozen, and was
easy to excavate when the outside ground was not. Whatever the
reason, its existence is fortunate, for cave burials have proven con-
ducive to preservation of remains, and thus they give illuminating
glimpses of ancient life.
Ash beds are found on the floors of caves, but it is often difficult
to tell whether they were made by ancient residents or modern hunters.
On the walls are marks and decorations; since weathering is very slow
in such protected places, these marks may be ten or a thousand years
old. Hidden in crevices are pots containing paint or pigment, but little
is known of the men who left them there.
South and west of the western Kentucky rock shelter area, along
Green River in its passage through McLean, Muhlenberg, Ohio, and
6723-896723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
32 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
Butler Counties, is the Shell Mound area. It is distinguished by great
shell heaps near the riverbanks, consisting of gastropod and mussel
shells mixed with animal bones and camp refuse. The size and number
of these mounds suggest a large population or a long-continued occupa-
tion. The shell beds are often ten to twelve feet deep, and many of
them are several acres in extent. The most important archeological
investigation within this area was made by C. B. Moore at Indian
Knoll, where many skeletons and certain characteristic artifacts were
discovered. The circular pattern of graves at this site is unlike that in
the surrounding territory. The artifacts indicate a people living
wholly by fishing and hunting. There is no evidence of agriculture
and, beyond the mounds themselves, no evidence of permanent occupa-
tion. It is possible that these shell mounds are evidences of the oldest
human occupancy in this area of the State.
The stone grave area, lying between the Tennessee and Green Rivers,
is very rich in prehistoric remains—earth mounds, large village sites,
and cemeteries. Stone grave cemeteries are fairly numerous, and some
are fairly extensive. A stone grave is made by setting six to eight
stones on edge, carefully joined to form a box; in this the body in the
flesh is buried at full length. Usually the stone graves were lined at
the bottom and covered at the top with flat stones. At one site they
were found under mounds which contained crematory pits and ossuaries
of a group of unknown culture.
These stone graves are generally devoid of artifacts, although some-
times they contain small mortuary vessels of pottery. At the head
or foot of the individual within the stone grave are extended burials
and many burials of bones. Thus on such sites there is evidence of at
least two methods of disposal of the dead. Because of a dearth of arti-
facts the cultural connections of these people are uncertain.
Within this area, built upon a stone grave cemetery seemingly at a
later date, a village site has been found and a group of sixty or more
mounds, many of which have proven to be crematory pits for burning
the bones of the dead. Remains show the practice of cremation,
strongly suggestive of some members of the Siouan linguistic stock, and
collections of jumbled human bones are found, often within the same
mound. Such ossuaries often contain the bones of hundreds of indi-
viduals, packed into small, stone, chimney-like vaults, similar to the
crematory pits. Here again were two methods of dealing with the
dead. Artifacts found in this association are few, the most character-
6723-906723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
ARCHEOLOGY AND INDIANS 33
istic being pottery "elbow" pipes. These pipes and burial customs
are similar to those described by Gerard Fowke in Missouri.
The third culture within this area has been called the Gordon or
Tennessee-Cumberland aspect, first described by Meyer in the Cum-
berland River region of Tennessee. This culture is distinguished by
the erection of earth mounds over the sites of buildings or temples.
The remains of these buildings, which were made of wattlework be-
tween posts driven into the earth, show that they were destroyed by
fire and covered with earth while the fire was yet burning. Over this
a new structure was erected which, in time, went the way of the first.
Generally the mounds show several levels of occupation. Remains
of maize are found in the temple sites, indicating that the people of
this culture practiced agriculture. They made pottery, producing dis-
tinct and attractive types, many of which show outside influence. One
characteristic form is a textile-marked vessel of large size, commonly
called a salt pan. Shards of such vessels are found in great number
in the dirt forming the mounds that cover the sites of burned build-
ings.
While, in places, these earth mounds are found near the stone grave
cemeteries, not all are so situated. Some of the larger sites show full-
length burials in the flesh, accompanied by a variety of artifacts. The
occupancy of this area by so many different peoples complicates the
problem of identification; on the other hand it has increased the
stratification of artifacts and culture customs.
The Jesuit Relations recounts that the Five Nations, or Iroquois, in
New York, got guns from the Dutch about 1630 and turned on their
less advanced neighbors to the north, south, and west with such fury
that by 1690 the present States of Ohio and Kentucky were depop-
ulated, their inhabitants having fled across the Mississippi River or
to the southeast.
About 1645-1650 a group of these fugitives from the upper Ohio
began to cross the present State by the Athiomiowee, or Warriors7
Trace. They were overtaken by their Iroquoian foes, but fortified
themselves and drove them back. In Virginia they defeated Colonel
Howard Hill and killed the chief of his Indian allies, Totopottomoi, a
successor to Powhatan. The Virginia records call these fugitives
Rickohockans and later Occaneechos. Others of these same people
turned down the Ohio—called the Acansea River on early French maps
—and the Mississippi, and finally settled on the Missouri and Arkansas
Rivers.
6723-916723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
34 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
Between 1715 and 1725 a number of the Piqua band of Shawnee
returned from the South and built a town, Eskippakithiki, in the south-
eastern part of Clark County. There they remained for some time
until they moved to Ohio and took sides with the French in the cam-
paign against Braddock.
In 1736 the French took a census of the Ohio Valley and credited
the Shawnees, in the Carolina region, with a strength of 200 men.
This was probably only for the Shawnee town of Eskippakithiki, for
the Van Keulen map of 1720 shows a trail from the present Illinois,
crossing the Ohio near the mouth of the Kentucky River, and passing
by the site of Eskippakithiki, to Cumberland Gap, which is labeled,
"The route which the French take to trade with Carolina."
Peter Chartier, a half-breed Shawnee trader, the son of Martin
Chartier, was in Kentucky in the late seventeenth century. He had
his chief post at the Shawnee town on the Pequea Creek in Pennsyl-
vania, and probably reached out for trade with his Shawnee kinsmen
in Kentucky. In 1745, he was reprimanded by the Governor for sell-
ing liquor to the Indians, and accepted a captaincy in the French
service and fled down the Ohio River, taking with him 400 Shawnee
warriors and their families. Having robbed all the English traders
they met, they went to their kinsmen at Eskippakithiki, where they
stopped until the fall of 1747. After making trouble in the South for
several years, they drifted back, stopping at the present Shawneetown,
Illinois, until they were allowed to return to their British allegiance
and their old homes. Chartier fled to the French in Illinois.
About 1729 Shawnees, Delawares, and Mingoes built Lower Shaw-
neetown on the western side of the Scioto River at its mouth. A
suburb of this backwoods capital was built on the Kentucky side, now
Fullerton, and some trading posts were established there by Colonel
George Croghan, and others. This town and its Kentucky suburb
were deserted just before the French and Indian War. Eskippakithiki
and Lower Shawneetown were the last Indian settlements in Kentucky.
6723-926723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
HISTORY
KENTUCKY was the first State to be organized west of the Ap-
palachian Mountains. At the mountain barrier the westward
movement of American immigrants had come to its first halt, but there
was a lively curiosity about the land beyond to the west.
In 1642 a company of English adventurers, Walter Austin, Rice
Hoe, Joseph Johnson, and Walter Chiles, petitioned for "leave and
encouragement to explore westward." Whatever their intentions may
have been, they failed to use their grant. Twenty-seven years passed
before the subject of western exploration was again discussed in the
Virginia Assembly. A permit was granted in 1669 to John Lederer, a
German adventurer and personal friend of Governor Berkeley, to ex-
plore westward. He made three trips into the Blue Ridge, passing
through the neighborhood of what is now Lynchburg, but accom-
plished little. In 1671, Colonel Abram Wood, commandant of Fort
Henry at Petersburg, Virginia, sent Thomas Batts and Robert Fallam
into the western ranges to find the "ebbing and flowing of the rivers
on the other side of the mountains in order to reach the South Seas."
This expedition reached the Ohio Valley, but the English were not
much impressed with the findings. Two or three years later, however,
they discovered that the French were active in the western country
beyond the mountains. The English became intensely interested when
the French, by virtue of the Mississippi voyages of Jolliet and Mar-
quette in 1673 and of La Salle in 1682, claimed all the region drained
by the Mississippi River and its tributaries. James Needham and
Gabriel Arthur were sent into the West in 1673. Needham was killed,
but Arthur made his way into northeastern Kentucky with the Indians
and may have been the first Englishman on Kentucky soil. English
interest in the trans-Allegheny region lagged for 70 years and was
confined to the cis-Allegheny frontier.
In 1742 John Peter Salley (or Sailing) led a party from Virginia to
the banks of the Ohio River. One or two of the men were killed, and
Salley was captured by French adventurers and sent to prison, first at
35
6723-936723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
36 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
Natchez, and later in Cuba and France. He finally returned to
Charleston, South Carolina. Salley's adventure stimulated a fresh
interest on the part of the English in the Ohio Valley. Seven years
later Pierre Joseph Celoron, Sieur de Blainville, set out from Quebec
to lay claim for the French to all the land between Quebec and New
Orleans. The news of this expedition aroused the English whose
Colonial officials took steps to make counter claims. Land companies
were organized and plans were made at once to send surveyors beyond
the mountains to lay out claims to large tracts of lands for prospective
settlements. The Loyal Land Company at Charlottesville, Virginia,
secured a grant of 800,000 acres and dispatched an expedition west-
ward under Dr. Thomas Walker in 1750. The party left Charlottes-
ville on March 6 and came to a wide pass in the Allegheny wall on
April 13. Walker refers to the pass in his journal as "Cave Gap"
through which his party passed on their way to within a short distance
from what is now Barboursville. Here the expedition established its
base for operations, explored the eastern mountain range of Kentucky
for several weeks, and left the country on June 20, 1750.
The next year Christopher Gist, a frontier scout and explorer, was
employed by the Ohio Land Company to visit the West. He traveled
through passes in the neighborhood of modern Pittsburgh and made
his way through Indian trading villages down the Ohio River to the
Kentucky country. In March 1751 he visited Big Bone Lick, and
headed for the great Falls of the Ohio River, now Louisville, but
friendly Shawnee Indians warned him of hostile tribes encamped about
the falls. Gist turned back, passing over the mountains to North
Carolina.
The settlement line along the Virginia and Carolina frontiers grew
more and more populous from 1751 to 1786. The settlers were anxious
to move westward to new and more fertile lands, but the country was
involved in the French and Indian War from 1755 to 1763 and it was
dangerous. It appeared for a time that the land which is now Ken-
tucky would fall to the French, but the tide turned at last, and on
February 10, 1763, the Treaty of Paris was signed. The English got
possession of the land east of the Mississippi River, but to the disap-
pointment of the frontiersmen, King George III issued the proclama-
tion of 1763 forbidding settlers to move beyond the line of watershed
in the Appalachian highlands.
Despite the King's proclamation, scouts of one kind or another
brought back from the West thrilling stories of the new country. Mrs.
6723-946723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
HISTORY 37
Inglis, with a German woman companion, came into the northern Ken-
tucky country as captives of the Indians, from whom they escaped
almost miraculously. The so-called silver miners, led by John Swift,
were in Kentucky from time to time during the 1760's. A legend pre-
vails to this day that Swift and his companions mined large quantities
of silver in Kentucky and many communities yet claim the site of the
Swift silver mines.
The "long hunters," so called because of long periods of time spent
by men of the eastern frontier settlements in hunting across the moun-
tains, began to invade the Kentucky country. Among them were John
Raines, Uriah Stone, John Finley, Henry Skaggs, and Daniel Boone.
Boone's fame has grown with the passage of time until he has become,
in legend at least, the chief figure of the early Kentucky frontier days.
His life is symbolical of the western movement in American history.
Born in Berks County, Pennsylvania, in 1734, Boone had moved with
his parents in 1750 to the western part of North Carolina, on the
Yadkin. He was restless by nature, and in 1766 entered upon a career
of exploration that first took him as far south as St. Augustine,
Florida. Returning to North Carolina, he was influenced to go West
by John Finley's stories of Kentucky, and crossed through Cumber-
land Gap. But instead of reaching the Bluegrass country he spent
the winter of 1767 in the tablelands of eastern Kentucky, and returned
to North Carolina. In May 1769, Boone, Finley, and several com-
panions started for Kentucky. They spent the summer hunting in
the cane lands and before they realized it winter was upon them.
When their stores were broken into by the Indians in December and
a number of horses were stolen, the party broke up, and Finley with
three of his companions returned to North Carolina.
Meanwhile, Squire Boone, a brother of Daniel, and a companion
had come out to Kentucky. The two brothers hunted for a year, and
wandered over the country from the Big Sandy to the Cumberland
Rivers. It was during these years, 1769-1771, that Daniel Boone
acquired information about the Kentucky country that later made him
a valuable scout.
The next whites to appear in Kentucky were the land surveyors sent
out by land companies and speculators. Captain Thomas Bullitt led
one such party to the Falls of the Ohio River in June 1773, where he
made a survey of the lands where Louisville now stands. At the same
time the McAfee brothers were surveying lands up the Kentucky?
6723-956723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
38 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
River. James Harrod led another surveying party in 1774 to the
neighborhood now known as Harrodsburg.
No settlement had been established as yet, but immediately after
the Indian disturbances had been settled by the Dunmore War, specu-
lators laid plans to claim vast surveys in the West. The best known
of these speculative ventures was the Transylvania Land Company,
organized in 1773 as the Richard Henderson Company, under the
leadership of Judge Richard Henderson of North Carolina. He and
his associates, Colonel Nathaniel Hart and others, made a treaty with
the Cherokee Indians on March 17, 1775, at Sycamore Shoals on the
Watauga River, granting the whites possession of all the land south of
the Ohio River, north of the Cumberland River, and west of the Ap-
palachian ranges. Henderson also purchased a tract that reached from
Cumberland Gap to the south bank of the Cumberland River. Daniel
Boone and thirty companions were dispatched immediately to Ken-
tucky to blaze the trail, and locate suitable river fording places.
Henderson and his party followed and in May 1775, the settlement
at Boonesboro was begun.
Harrodsburg, of Virginia origin, was also settled in early 1775. The
founding of St. Asaph Station and Boiling Springs followed immedi-
ately. Judge Henderson issued a call on May 23, 1775, to all these
forts to send delegates to Boonesboro for the purpose of making laws
to govern the settlements. The nine laws passed by this meeting are
sometimes called the first legislative acts passed by a Kentucky Legisla-
ture, though this is not strictly true.
Rivalry soon developed between the Virginia and North Carolina
settlements. George Rogers Clark, a young Virginian who had re-
cently come West, called a meeting at Harrodsburg on June 6, 1776,
of all the Kentucky forts to discuss a course of procedure. Clark and
John Gabriel Jones were selected as delegates to go to Williamsburg
and present their problems to the Virginia Legislature, but they ar-
rived too late to go before the assembly. Clark, however, was able to
secure an appropriation of 500 pounds of gunpowder for the protection
of Kentucky.
Clark and Jones learned, while in Williamsburg, that Richard Hen-
derson and his associates were attempting to secure recognition of their
colony. The Harrodsburg delegates, thereupon, decided to remain in
Virginia until the assembly convened in the fall in order that they
tmight protect the rights of the Harrodsburg settlers. It was largely
^rough their influence that the Transylvania Land Company was de-
6723-966723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
HISTORY 39
clared illegal, and that Kentucky County was created out of Fincastle
County on December 6, 1776. The name Kentucky was first used
officially by Virginia at this time.
When Clark and Jones returned to Kentucky they found many
settlers moving into the West. The Indians, however, were a constant
menace, and Clark realized that if the Kentucky settlements were to
survive, a military drive would have to be made beyond the Ohio.
He therefore sought the permission and assistance of the Virginia As-
sembly and Governor Patrick Henry to attack the Indians and the
English in their stronghold beyond the Ohio River, and won approval
of his plans in December 1777. Starting out from Virginia, Clark went
to the Redstone settlement near Pittsburgh to recruit troops for his
western expedition. At the same time he dispatched an agent to the
Watauga settlements in Tennessee for the same purpose. Both Clark
and his agent were disappointed in the number of troops secured. In-
stead of 350, which he wanted, he got less than 200, and many of them
objected to fighting beyond the Ohio River. Clark, nevertheless, pro-
ceeded to Corn Island in the Ohio, opposite the site on which Louis-
ville stands today.
The expedition started secretly in June 1778 for Kaskaskia, and
took the town by surprise. This successful coup was followed by a
similar one against the town of Cahokia. In the fall Governor Hamil-
ton arrived at Vincennes, the main French post in the northwest, with
a large force of British and Indian troops, and the British flag was
raised over the'village. Hamilton thought he was perfectly safe in
Vincennes, but in February 1779 Clark and his troops took Vincennes
by surprise and captured the fort. The Indians were thus driven back
temporarily from Kentucky and the American frontier was extended
to the Mississippi River.
In the meantime Kentuckians were having Indian troubles at home.
Daniel Boone and his salt-making companions were captured at the
Lower Blue Licks February 7, 1778, and carried away to Detroit where
he was adopted as a son of Chief Black Fish. He lived happily with
the Indians for a time, but when he heard that the French-Canadian,
De Quindre, was plotting with the Indians to attack Boonesboro, he
returned to that settlement to prepare for the attack. The Indians
under the command of De Quindre appeared before the fort and de-
manded its surrender; the demand was refused and the attack re-
pulsed. The Kentucky settlements were saved.
The British and Indians made a second major attack in 1782, strife,
6723-976723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
40 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
ing at Bryan Station on August 15. Four days later the Kentuckians
pursued them to the banks of the Licking River. On a limestone road
in a ravine at Blue Licks occurred one of the bloodiest battles ever
fought on the frontier. Though the Americans were defeated, this was
the last battle of any significance fought against the Indians on Ken-
tucky soil.
As the Kentucky country became^ more settled and Indian skirmishes
became less frequent, the settlers grew tired of living in stockades.
County organizations and taverns began to spring up. The Falls of
the Ohio, which became Louisville, was surveyed in 1773 by Thomas
Bullitt; Boonesboro was incorporated in 1779; Washington and Mays-
ville soon followed; the plan for the town of Lexington was adopted
in 1781. The Kentuckians soon began to consider separating their
territory from Virginia and becoming one of the States of the con-
federation. They first met in Danville December 27, 1784, to discuss
the matter formally; ten conventions were called before an independent
State was created. (In the meantime the Constitution of the United
States was written and ratified.) Many reasons for a separation were
discussed in these conventions: objections to Virginia taxes, inability
of Kentuckians to adapt Virginia laws to local situations, the refusal
of Virginia to permit Kentuckians to pursue Indians beyond the Ohio
River, and the fact that all cases appealed to higher courts had to be
carried back to Richmond for trial. Some people demanded that Ken-
tucky become simply an independent State and have nothing to do
with the Union, some wished to become a part of the Spanish Empire,
some to remain a part of Virginia. Others demanded recognition as
one of the States of the Union. The long, bitter struggle finally came
to an end in the framing of a constitution at Danville in April 1792.
On June 1, 1792, Kentucky was admitted as a State into the Union.
The new government was inaugurated June 4, 1792, in Lexington.
General Isaac Shelby, by common consent, was chosen to be the first
Governor. The Sheaf of Wheat Tavern in Lexington became tem-
porarily the statehouse, and the legislature met for its first session in a
capitol building of logs. Its first task was to select a permanent site
for the State Capital; December 8, 1792, Frankfort was so designated.
Kentucky's first constitution was modeled to some extent on the
National Constitution. All white males over 21 years of age were
permitted to vote, the Governor and senators were elected by an elec-
toral college, slavery was protected, and a bill of rights of 27 divisions
was attached. It failed, however, to provide for a public school system.
6723-986723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
HISTORY 41
In 1799 a second constitutional convention was held, and a new con-
stitution was adopted. It created the office of Lieutenant Governor,
and made all State officers subject to direct election by the people. An
interesting provision prohibited a minister of the Gospel from serving
in the capacity of a lawmaker. Slave owners were afraid that ministers
would attempt to pass abolition legislation.
Kentucky became deeply involved in the famous French conspiracy
at this time* When Charles Edmund Genet landed at Charleston,
South Carolina, on April 8, 1793, he dispatched his agents to the west-
ern country. George Rogers Clark was given a high commission in the
French Army of the Mississippi Valley. Liberty poles were erected in
many towns and Kentuckians hailed one another as "Citizen." Al-
though the conspiracy was put down, the citizens of the State continued
to favor the French. In 1798 they protested against the Alien and
Sedition laws passed by the Adams government in Philadelphia. John
Breckinridge, of Kentucky, in co-operation with Thomas Jefferson,
drafted the famous series of resolutions setting forth what they be-
lieved to be State rights. There was much public debate on the ques-
tion and popular opinion became overwhelmingly Republican. George
Nicholas, of Lexington, a keen constitutionalist, vigorously attacked
the Federalist laws. Henry Clay delivered his first significant speech
in Kentucky politics on the question of States' rights. But when
Jefferson was elected President of the United States, Kentuckians for-
got their attack upon the National Constitution.
Between 1800-1804, the issue of trade rights on the lower Missis-
sippi River was settled by the Louisiana Purchase. Kentuckians had
lived in constant fear that the temperamental Spanish officials would
remove the American right of deposit, and that Kentuckians would be
unable to sell their products southward. In 1802 their fears were
realized, and the Spanish canceled the right of deposit. The situation
was relieved, however, when Louisiana passed into American hands in
1803.
Hardly had Kentuckians ceased rejoicing than they were involved,
innocently, in another national scandal. Aaron Burr, who had killed
Alexander Hamilton in a duel, came to the State and plotted much
of his proposed independent republic in the Southwest. Many promi-
nent Kentuckians became involved in the plot. Burr was twice brought
to trial in the Federal Court of the District of Kentucky, but was re-
leased both times as not guilty of the charges of treason preferred
against him.
6723-996723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
42 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
When the excitement about the Burr conspiracy had somewhat sub-
sided, Kentucky became agitated over the possibility of a war with
England. News reached Kentucky in 1807 of the Chesapeake and
Leopard affair. Public opinion in favor of war ran high, and the local
press cried out loudly against England. The State legislature passed
laws forbidding the use of certain British laws and citation of British
cases in court. Realizing the temper of the public mind, the politi-
cians who sought office began to Agitate the question of expanding
American territory. Henry Clay and Richard M. Johnson were elected
to Congress on an expansionist platform. Henry Clay even went so
far as to advocate the annexation of Canada. By 1811 Kentuckians
virtually demanded war with England. When war was formally de-
clared in 1812, Kentuckians advanced rapidly to the area about De-
troit. A large part of the American forces at the Battle of the Thames
consisted of Kentucky militiamen under the command of Gov. Isaac
Shelby and Congressman Richard Mentor Johnson. When Gen. An-
drew Jackson defeated the British forces at New Orleans on January 8,
1815, 5,500 Kentuckians were present, under Generals Thomas and
Adair.
After the War of 1812 Kentuckians turned their attention to more
constructive interests. Western manufactures were increasing because
British goods were off the American market from 1805-1815. Ken-
tucky hemp, cloth and rope manufacturers especially enjoyed a flourish-
ing trade, and butchers, distillers, salt-makers, and cabinetmakers were
prosperous. Land prices advanced and Louisville, Lexington, Mays-
ville, Covington, Carrollton, Paducah, Henderson, and Hickman were
rapidly becoming busy trade centers. River boatmen began to clamor
for a canal around the Falls of the Ohio at Xouisville. A company
was chartered by the State legislature in 1805 for this purpose, but the
work was delayed and the canal was not completed until 1829. The
first successful steamboat trip on western waters was taken by the
New Orleans to New Orleans in 1811 by Captain Nicholas Roosevelt.
About 1815 a steamboat, the Enterprise, came up the river from New
Orleans and thereafter the steamboat business began to thrive. By
1860 Kentuckians were supplying the Southern States with the most
of their manufactured goods.
With prosperous conditions, there came a demand for improved bank-
ing facilities. Kentucky at the time had a system of State banks to
which was entrusted the responsibility of issuing currency, but the
amount issued was insufficient for the successful conduct of business.
6723-1006723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
Ill
6723-1016723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--6723-1026723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
'ijBi-'• • :^•-' '^^fe^l
DIAMOND POINT, HARRODSBURG
6723-1036723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
ROPSHIRE HOUSE, GEORGETOWN
LIBERTY HALL, FRANKFORT
6723-1046723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
WILMORE GARRETT RESIDENCE, NEAR LEXINGTON
MC AFEE HOUSE, NEAR HARRODSBURG
6723-1056723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
D KEENE PLACE, NEAR LEXINGTON
FAIR OAKS, NEAR HARRODSBURG
6723-1066723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
SCARLET GATE, HOME OF JAMES LANE ALLEN, NEAR LEXINGTON
CLAY HILL, HARRODSBURG
6723-1076723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
fSION MUSEUM, HARRODSBURG
CARNEAL HOUSE, COVINGTON
6723-1086723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
WICKLAND, BARDSTOWN
THE ORLANDO BROWN HOUSE, FRANKFORT
6723-1096723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
STAIRWAY, OLD CAPITOL, FRANKFORT
6723-1106723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
HISTORY 43
By 1818 the demand for an increase in the number of banks was so
great that the Bank of Kentucky was expanded to include more than
40 branches. Each branch bank was given the authority to issue its
own currency. In a short time, however, the lack of control over the
volume of currency issued led to general financial confusion, and to
depreciation in value of currency. The situation became so acute that
in December 1819, the general assembly passed a law granting a stay
of execution for 60 days. This relief was not sufficient to stem the
tide. In February 1820, all debtors were given a moratorium of two
years. A test case was carried to the courts, and the circuit court of
Bourbon County declared the law unconstitutional. Later, the State
court of appeals upheld the local court and the legislature declared that
the courts were thwarting the will of the people. A struggle between
the legislative and the judicial branches of the government continued
until 1829, when the court was finally absolved of all the charges made
against it.
The legislative-judicial struggle over the banking question created
two political parties in Kentucky. In the Presidential campaign of
1824 one of the four candidates in the field was Henry Clay of Ken-
tucky, who was defeated; but, as Speaker of the House of Representa-
tives, he was a powerful factor in deciding whom Congress should select
for the next President. The Kentucky General Assembly had in-
structed Clay to support Jackson, but he disobeyed instructions and
supported John Quincy Adams. This brought about another break in
Kentucky politics; the Clay supporters became Whigs and the Jackson
supporters became Democrats. This alignment prevailed until 1860.
The institution of slavery was a political issue in Kentucky from
1792 to 1865. Slavery had been transferred to the West as a part of
the social organization of the State, but it was not an economic suc-
cess. Lack of transportation facilities made large-scale tobacco culture
unprofitable in the early years; and the cultivation of hemp and grain
and the breeding of livestock were not adapted to slave labor.
After 1820 many Kentucky farmers moved to the Cotton Belt where
they could employ their slaves with profit. Others sold off their sur-
plus supply of Negroes to the southern planters. When the War be-
tween the States broke out, Kentucky had approximately 225,000
slaves. The State was divided into two distinct economic units. The
Bluegrass counties, in which slavery existed to the greatest extent, quite
generally favored the southern economic system. The poorer counties,
and the larger urban centers were quite generally opposed to slavery.
6723-1116723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
44 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
Originally the chief criticism of slavery came from the churches and
the clergy. The slaveholders were constantly on guard against this
opposition, and since they exercised more political influence than the
clergy, they succeeded in building a wall of protective legislation about
the system of slave labor. Between 1820 and 1835 the American
Colonization Society, of which Henry Clay was president, made con-
siderable headway in Kentucky. At the same time outside abolitionists
began to attack Kentucky slavery; this caused much hard feeling in
the State, and probably did more immediate harm than good. The
institution of slavery also found severe critics within the State. Cassius
M. Clay, a native of Madison County, and publisher of the True
American, a newspaper in Lexington, condemned Kentucky slavery
very bitterly.
Other live issues were at stake in antebellum days. When Henry
Clay died in 1852 he left behind him the wreckage of the Whig party,
and no leader to take his place. Local politicians began to inject into
their speeches the questions of religion and nationalities. Catholics
were condemned along with all foreigners. The Sons of America, or
Native Americans as they called themselves, attempted to keep posses-
sion of the reins of local government. A riot in Louisville in 1855,
known as "Bloody Monday," resulted.
In the Presidential election of 1860 Kentucky voted against its two
native sons, Abraham Lincoln and John C. Breckinridge, and gave its
majority support to John Bell of Tennessee, wHb proposed to save the
Union at any cost. Unlike her southern neighbors the State refused
to be stampeded into secession. Although Kentucky was a slave State
and considered itself Southern, it leaned toward the idea of maintaining
the Union intact. Commerce and agriculture had become the chief
interests. When war broke out, both sides looked upon Kentucky as
a valuable prize, and both sides disregarded its neutrality.
During the early part of 1862 western Kentucky was the scene of
most important operations between Northern troops under the com-
mand of Grant, McClellan, and Thomas, and the Southern troops
under the command of Johnston, Polk, Buckner, Crittenden, and Zol-
licoffer. Union victory at Mill Springs, where Zollicoffer was killed
January 19, opened the way into Eastern Tennessee. In 1863 the
Confederates under Braxton Bragg and Kirby Smith made a drive into
central Kentucky. Bragg received the surrender of the garrison at
Munfordville on September 17. He then moved northeastward through
Bardstown, and at Perryville stumbled into one wing of the Union com-
6723-1126723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
HISTORY 45
mand under General Don Carlos Buell. Here on October 8 was fought
the battle of Perryville, the bloodiest encounter in Kentucky history.
The result was a draw. Bragg retreated, leaving Buell in possession
of the field. This marked the end of any serious attempt by the Con-
federates to gain possession of Kentucky.
Guerilla warfare was carried on in many sections of Kentucky. The
famous bushwhacker, Quantrill of Missouri, transferred his activities
to Kentucky and kept local communities in a state of excitement. So
vicious did this guerilla warfare become that Governor Bramlette was
compelled to organize a home guard for the protection of local com-
munities.
When peace came in 1865 Kentucky firmly believed that it would
resume its peaceful pursuit of developing agriculture and industry, but
such was not to be the case. The carpetbaggers realized that the Ne-
groes, many of whom were concentrated in Louisville in the Federal
camps, offered a good opportunity for political advantage. Farmers
were frightened into believing that they would be completely robbed of
labor. Pamphlets were issued inviting foreigners to come to the State.
Even Chinese coolies were sought as a solution to the labor problem.
The State refused to ratify the thirteenth and fourteenth amendments.
By 1871 conditions had become more or less normal; Kentuckians
gradually forgot the war and turned to the problems of industry, agri-
culture, politics and temperance.
The lower South, which had been Kentucky's most important market,
had been depleted by the war. Louisville merchants were the first to
realize the situation, and sent ex-Confederate soldiers as salesmen into
the South to help re-establish the crossroads stores. These drummers
were instructed to sell goods at all cost. Wholesale houses were gen-
erous in their credit to southern merchants. They not only thoroughly
canvassed the South, but Louisville financiers backed the extension of
the L. & N. R.R. into the South. Consequently Kentuckians soon re-
covered much of the trade which they had lost in the war, and the
State's industry once again became an important factor in the economic
development of the South.
Agriculture presented a more difficult problem. Many Kentucky
farmers depended upon a single cash crop, tobacco, and with each suc-
ceeding panic following 1865, Kentucky tobacco farmers, like southern
cotton farmers, became virtually bankrupt. This difficulty led to the
organization of various farmers' movements—granger organizations, the
Farmers' Alliance, and finally the Populist party. The Populists de-
6723-1136723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
46 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
manded tariff reforms, regulation of transportation agencies, establish-
ment of agricultural schools, a more satisfactory distribution of the na-
tional medium of exchange, more reasonable farm credits, higher agri-
cultural prices, and the framing of a new State constitution in 1890.
This constitution, in effect today, reflects the philosophy of the Ken-
tucky Populist party of 1890.
Agricultural issues in the State were not all settled peacefully. From
1907 to 1909 there raged in the dark tobacco belt a "night-riders" war
which resulted in many fatalities. The reign of general lawlessness pre-
vailed in the State for more than a year, until it was ended by the State
militia, called out by the Governor. Agrarian troubles were largely
back of bitter partisan politics that prevailed in Kentucky the latter
part of the nineteenth century. The gubernatorial election of 1899 was
fiercely fought. William Goebel of Covington opposed William Syl-
vester Taylor, a western Kentuckian, and John Young Brown. When
the votes were counted it was found that Taylor had won by a ma-
jority of more than 2,000 votes. The supporters of Goebel contested
the election. While the legislature was considering the matter, Goebel
was shot by an assassin (January 30, 1900). The legislature at once
declared Goebel Governor, but he died on February 3. Kentucky
was almost in a state of civil war; for several months it had two Gov-
ernors and two governments. The Democrats won in the end, and
J. C. W. Beckham succeeded the assassinated Goebel as Governor.
Several years were required to allay the bitter partisan feeling that was
engendered by this affair.
Since 1909 Kentucky has pursued a fairly steady and progressive
course, in spite of the fact that Democrats and Republicans have
fought each other bitterly and alternated in political power.
Kentucky did its part in the World War by furnishing 75,043 men
and meeting its quotas in money subscribed. Men were encamped and
trained at Fort Thomas, Camp Zachary Taylor, and Camp Knox. The
latter was not dismantled after the war and on January 30, 1932, it
became a permanent post of the U. S. Army and officially named Fort
Knox. The gold vault of the U. S. Treasury is located on the reserva-
tion. Capt. Samuel Woodfill, a Kentuckian, was cited by General
Pershing as the outstanding soldier of the war; Woodfill and Willie
Sandlin were awarded Congressional medals of honor for heroism. Of
the men who were drafted and enlisted, 70 to 80 percent passed their
physical examinations and were accepted for Army service.
One of the outstanding achievements of the twentieth century in the
6723-1146723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
HISTORY 47
State is the development of good roads, under a State highway commis-
sion. By 1920 the highway system was well enough organized to take
over a large primary system of highways. The effects of improved
highways in Kentucky upon the general character and welfare of the
people cannot be overestimated. Not only have the highways speeded
up commerce and travel, but they have tended to break down section-
alism. With primary roads in every county, it is no longer strange to
see people from the remote eastern and western sections of the State
strolling the streets of Louisville as nonchalantly as if they had lived
there all their lives.
In the 50 years following the first census of 1790 the population
increased more than tenfold—from 73,677 to 779,828. It numbered
1,858,635 in 1890 and 2,614,589 in 1930. Only 30.6 percent of the
1930 population was classified as urban.
Kentucky's government has recently been completely modernized,
but this has been done without touching the constitution itself and with
only a few optional alterations in the county structure. Increasing diffi-
culties with a government that tried to operate in an industrial era, on
a constitution descended from Kentucky's former slave-owning agricul-
tural status, led to the appointment of an efficiency commission in 1926.
This body made a two-year study of the State's governmental needs,
and recommended widespread changes, but controversies over their
adoption disrupted the State for another ten years. In 1934 the execu-
tive offices were reorganized under Governor Ruby Laffoon, but this
reorganization proved too cumbersome. After two years another ex-
haustive study was made that resulted in the Shields-Nickell Govern-
mental Reorganization Act, approved March 7, 1936.
The important changes in this reorganization were the creation of a
department of welfare, expanded powers of the department of health,
consolidation of the State tax commission and the department of
revenue and taxation into a single department of revenue, added powers
of the efficiency department to improve the civil service, and the crea-
tion of a new department of conservation. Finally, there was added to
the State government the legislative council, a modern unit in American
government in operation now only in a few States. The function of
this council is purely advisory. It examines and reports on the working
of the existing legislative machine, prepares and submits programs for
the general assembly, and promotes interstate comity.
The present Kentucky government follows the traditional American
system of three branches—executive, legislative, and judiciary—all re-
6723-1156723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
48 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
sponsible directly to the votes of the citizens. Citizenship qualifications
are simple. Any person not an idiot or insane, who is over twenty-one
years of age and has resided in the State one year, in the county six
months, and in the voting precinct sixty days next preceding election,
is qualified to vote; except that any person convicted of a felony for-
feits his right of franchise, unless he is pardoned by the governor.
There are no other qualifications.
The two units of local government are the county and the city. The
county government today is an interesting survival from Colonial
times, when its forms were borrowed more or less directly from Eng-
land. Counties have their own courts which administer governmental
functions; they collect and spend their own revenues and in general
regulate their affairs as they please, subject only to the restrictions of
the general assembly which, as has been pointed out, is restricted by
the constitution from interfering with major phases of local adminis-
tration. The government is administered entirely by courts with the
county judge as the executive. He is elected by the county at large
and presides over the county court. Beneath this court the county is
divided into magisterial districts, each with a justice of the peace in
authority. These justices compose the fiscal court of each county,
with rather indiscriminate legislative and judicial powers.
Kentucky cities have their own government, independent of their
surrounding counties, and responsible only to the State. The legisla-
ture divides the cities into six classes, according to population, and
provides debt limits and general forms of government for each. Three
forms of city government are established, and variations from these are
allowed by special legislative enactment: the standard mayor-council
form, commission government, and the city manager plan.
The constitution of Kentucky, which covers all forms of government
and of legislation throughout the State, is subject to alteration through
two methods. An amendment may be proposed in either branch of the
general assembly at a regular session, and if agreed to by a three-fifths
vote of both branches, may be submitted to the voters of the State for
adoption. Ninety days must elapse between the legislative adoption of
the amendment and its submission to popular vote; and not more than
two amendments may be voted on at any one time. If a widespread
revision of the constitution is demanded, a general constitutional con-
vention of delegates, equal in numbers to that of the house of repre-
sentatives, may be authorized by the general assembly. The conven-
tion remodels the constitution and submits it to popular vote.
6723-1166723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
HISTORY 49
Kentucky has its State flag, its State flower, its State bird, and its
State song. The flag is Kentucky blue with the seal of the Common-
wealth encircled by a wreath of goldenrod in the center. The State
flower is the goldenrod, the bird is the Kentucky cardinal, the song
is "My Old Kentucky Home, Good Night,7' by Stephen Collins Foster.
6723-1176723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
AGRICULTURE
EARLY development of Kentucky was entirely agricultural,
and at first only those trades incidental and necessary to farming
received attention. Lumbering, mining, and manufacturing had to
await the development of agriculture. Isolated from markets and
sources of manufactured goods, farmers produced nearly everything
consumed by their families, and each farm was largely a self-contained
and self-supporting economic unit.
Sugar and hardware had to be imported from the beginning, and at
first were paid for with pelts. When farm production began to exceed
consumption, farmers sought means of exchanging their surplus prod-
ucts for the articles they had to buy. A system of country merchan-
dising based upon exchange of products developed, and farming for
the market began.
Prohibitive freight costs over the Appalachian Mountains made east-
ward shipment uneconomic for all except commodities of high value in
proportion to bulk and weight. The Ohio and Mississippi Rivers,
which border Kentucky for more than 700 miles, and tributaries of the
Ohio that flow across and through the State, give Kentucky more miles
of major navigable streams than any other State. With a mountain
barrier to the east and a water route down the Ohio and Mississippi to
New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico, river transportation reached a
high stage of development, especially after the coming of the steam-
boat. This profoundly affected agriculture, and partly accounts for
the high rank of Kentucky as an agricultural State for approximately
seventy-five years preceding the War between the States. In 1839
Kentucky was first in the production of hemp; second in the production
of both corn and hogs (with Tennessee ranking first), fourth in the
production of oats and rye, and one of the leading tobacco, wheat, and
beef producing States. The influence of Kentucky farmers, repre-
sented in Congress by Henry Clay, contributed to the establishment
of a protective tariff. Competition of imported fibers with hemp in-
duced Kentucky farmers to endorse the policy of protection.
50
6723-1186723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
AGRICULTURE 51
Properly speaking, commercialized farming dates from about 1825,
when the first market for tobacco in hogsheads was opened at Louis-
ville. Before this time Kentucky tobacco was shipped direct from the
farm to New Orleans. Naturally, production was confined to areas
adjacent to navigable rivers. Western Kentucky, with an abundance
of navigable streams, enjoyed transportation facilities superior to other
parts of the State, and consequently became the State's center of to-
bacco culture. Subsequently, tobacco production of the dark type
was so concentrated in this area that it became known as the "Black
Patch."
Even before Kentucky became a State, tobacco shared with hemp the
distinction of being one of the two crops grown commercially. Tobacco
had long been the leading money crop in North Carolina and Virginia,
and settlers from these States continued its culture. The variety
grown was dark and heavy, similar to the present-day dark-fired type.
It was believed in the early years that only virgin ground would grow
good tobacco. Common practice, therefore, was to clear fresh acreage
for the crops each year. Practically all land used for tobacco was
originally covered with hardwood forests; but there was no market at
that time for timber cleared to make room for tobacco, and great quan-
tities of walnut, cherry, chestnut, hickory, oak, and poplar timber
were cut and burned as waste.
Tobacco production increased rapidly after 1825, and by 1865 Ken-
tucky was producing more of this crop than any other State in the
Union. White burley was first raised near Higginsport, Brown County,
Ohio, in 1864, from seed produced in Kentucky. Rapid spread of
this tobacco throughout central Kentucky more firmly fixed tobacco
as the key product in the farm economy of the State. Until the com-
ing of white burley, tobacco had not been grown to any extent in cen-
tral Kentucky. Development of railway facilities, high content of
calcium and phosphorus in the soils of central Kentucky, and the fact
that burley found a good market as both smoking and chewing to-
bacco, stimulated the rapid increase of tobacco raising in that area.
Tobacco production grew rapidly after 1865, and until recent years
Kentucky ranked first among the States in its culture. Lexington is
the world's largest loose-leaf tobacco market.
Formerly grown exclusively in the Bluegrass region, burley is now
raised in 110 counties of the State. The 1933 crop, the last which
preceded production control, was 250 million pounds. In addition to
burley, four types of dark tobacco—Dark-fired, One-sucker, Green
6723-1196723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
52 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
River, and Stemming—are grown in 33 western counties. Dark to-
bacco, with the exception of the finest dark-fired, used in the manufac-
ture of snuff, is largely exported.
One-third to one-half of the annual cash income of Kentucky farmers
is derived from tobacco. The ease with which it lends itself to a one-
crop system of farming has had much to do with establishing it as a
chief product of the State. Because of long-continued dependence on
tobacco as their major money crop, Kentucky farmers are reluctant to
diversify their crops or to adopt more modern practices in tobacco cul-
ture. But there has been an economic collapse in the dark-tobacco
areas in Kentucky since the World War, because of curtailed foreign
demand; and as a result, dairying, poultry farming, small fruit orchard-
ing, and legume production are developing in those areas.
Cotton, the chief crop produced with slave labor, was never grown
to any large extent in Kentucky. Hemp growing, the second farm
enterprise in point of time, and tobacco production afforded the most
profitable opportunity in Kentucky for the use of slave labor.
The first crop of hemp was grown near Danville in 1775. When it
was found that hemp grew so well in the Bluegrass region, its growth
was discontinued in the Eastern States, and from 1840 to 1870 prac-
tically all of the hemp produced in the United States was grown in
Kentucky. In pioneer days hemp fiber was used for the homespun
cloth woven by the wives and daughters of early settlers. Soon the
fiber was used in making rope, twine, and sacking, particularly to bind
cotton bales; in the War of 1812 rigging and even cables were made of
it for Perry's fleet on Lake Erie. A lively export trade, in addition to
the healthy domestic demand, developed, clearing through New Or-
leans. As has already been pointed out, protection demanded by hemp
growers in Kentucky resulted in the adoption of the protective tariff
system in the United States. The replacement of sailing vessels by
steamships and the free import of various substitutes for hemp fiber
caused rapid decline in hemp culture after 1860, and the crop is now
not commercially important. Practically the entire national supply of
hemp seed for fiber is now produced in the narrow valleys of the Ken-
tucky River and its tributaries near High Bridge. The story of hemp
and the significance of its production to Kentucky has been fasci-
natingly described in a novel, The Reign of Law, by James Lane Allen.
Not only did the early settlers know how to grow tobacco, they also
knew how to make whisky. Because of its high value in proportion to
bulk and the ready market for it at New Orleans, whisky early became
6723-1206723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
AGRICULTURE 53
a favored product in the rye and corn regions of Kentucky. Probably
the bulk of the State's rye grown before I860, and a large part of its
corn, were utilized in whisky making. Water from Kentucky springs
and wells was found to be especially suitable for liquor, and the result
is that the distilling industry, in several ways, has affected agricultural
practice. Distilleries afforded a local market for small grains, and from
year to year farmers hoped to sell all or part of their grain to distil-
leries at a profitable price. Thus the distilling industry tended to per-
petuate the growing of small grains in many localities long after farmers
might have turned to other crops. Since the repeal of prohibition, dis-
tilleries have again become consumers of local grain and are also im-
portant sources of slop feed for beef cattle and hogs.
Horses were used as work stock in the American Colonies long before
mules. In 1783, George Washington, believing that mules were supe-
rior to horses for work on southern farms, imported jacks from Europe
and sent them on a stud tour of the South. Henry Clay was promi-
nent in establishing and developing the mule industry of Kentucky, and
in 1827 and 1829 made significant importations of jack stock from
Spain. Until the end of the century, Kentucky led in raising mules.
Tennessee and Missouri, also important mule-producing States, ob-
tained their foundation stock from Kentucky.
Every American knows of Kentucky bluegrass which thrives in pe-
culiar soil conditions, particularly in the Bluegrass region, where the
soil contains phosphorus, lime, and other minerals in such combination
as to make the grass especially excellent food for livestock. As soon as
the superior feeding qualities of pastures in central Kentucky were rec-
ognized, the region became the center of light horse breeding.
Exclusive of horses, it is estimated that $30,000,000 is invested in
Bluegrass horse farms and improvements; that employees are paid
$1,500,000 annually, and that $2,000,000 of supplies are purchased.
Bluegrass pastures contributed to the early development of improved
breeds of beef cattle. The Shorthorn in particular received attention,
and outstanding specimens, often selling for thousands of dollars, were
shipped to foreign countries as well as to other sections of the United
States. A somewhat similar improvement developed in sheep breed-
ing, particularly with the Southdown and Cheviot breeds. The Blue-
grass specializes in furnishing quality spring lambs for early market-
ing; these command a high price, since competition for them is keen.
Dairying, during the past decade, has grown almost phenomenally
in Kentucky. Though there has been a national decrease in the num-
6723-1216723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
54 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
ber of cows, the number in Kentucky has increased. Condenseries have
been built at several points, and full advantage has been taken of mild,
open winters and long grazing seasons. Collapse of dark-tobacco prices,
urban population growth, increasing appreciation of the value of milk
as a food, and other factors have contributed to the growth of dairy-
ing. In several very commendable respects Kentucky dairymen have
shown marked initiative. Union was the first county in the United
States to rid itself of scrub bulls. A State-wide campaign to test and
weed out tubercular dairy cows has been so successful that all the 120
counties are rated tubercular-free. A State campaign to eradicate
Bang's disease, or contagious abortion, among dairy cows is now well
advanced. The United States Department of Agriculture actively co-
operates in the campaign against tuberculosis and Bang's disease by
partially reimbursing farmers for cattle which have to be killed.
Corn is normally the crop of greatest value grown in the State, but
little is usually marketed as such, since the bulk is fed to livestock.
Hay, which is also a high value crop, is mostly fed to livestock. Jef-
ferson County is one of the most important agricultural counties, rank-
ing with Aroostook County, Maine, in the production of potatoes; it
leads all Kentucky counties in onions and onion sets, and is a large
producer of orchard and small fruits. McCracken County leads in rais-
ing strawberries, other small fruits, and peaches; while in Henderson
and a few other counties are several large commercial apple and peach
orchards.
Kentucky leads in the production of bluegrass, orchard grass, and
lespedeza seed. Poultry and pork production are important, and Ken-
tucky hickory-cured hams enjoy a reputation that is becoming nation-
wide. The production of sorghum molasses holds promise of future
development. In northern, southeastern, and selected areas of western
Kentucky, honey is produced on a commercial scale. Some cotton and
sweet potatoes are grown, chiefly in the Purchase; and large quantities
of vegetables and truck crops are produced around Louisville and the
Kentucky area near Cincinnati, Ohio.
Kentucky farmers, attempting to speak collectively concerning agri-
cultural problems, have subscribed to a series of farm movements. The
Grange reached its peak in Kentucky in 1875, at which time there were
1,493 granges with a membership of 52,463. The Agricultural Wheel,
active in Kentucky in the late eighties and early nineties, established
co-operative stores, a co-operative mill, and a co-operative tobacco asso-
ciation in Webster and Henderson Counties. During the existence of
6723-1226723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
AGRICULTURE 55
the American Society of Equity, 1904-1914, a large percentage of the
tobacco of the State was marketed co-operatively. Kentucky farmers
have also participated in the work of the Farmers' Alliance, the Farm-
ers' Union, and the Burley Tobacco Growers Co-operative Association,
which was organized in 1920 but later abandoned. The Farm Bureau
is organized in sixty counties with a membership, in 1937, of 13,500.
Of the total population (2,614,589) in 1930, almost 70 percent was
rural, and two-thirds of this number, or 1,174,232, were actually living
on 246,499 farms. Farm value of crops and livestock produced in 1929
was approximately $275,000,000; in 1935 gross income from farms was
$166,433,000, including Government benefit payments of $7,259,000.
The ten leading farm products are corn, tobacco, dairy products, poul-
try, vegetables and truck, hay, hogs, sheep, beef cattle, and fruit. Al-
though statistics are not available, it is probable that production of
horses and mules should be listed as one of the ten most important
farm enterprises.
Since its establishment in 1885, the Kentucky Agricultural Experi-
ment Station, co-operatively maintained at Lexington by the State and
Federal Governments, has vitally influenced the agricultural and rural
life of the State. No valuation in dollars can be placed on the worth
to farmers of improved agricultural practices initiated upon recommen-
dations of this agency. Nor can any estimate be made of the addi-
tional farm income resulting from improved varieties and breeds of
plants and animals, control and prevention of diseases of animals and
plants, eradication and control of insect pests, and marketing and farm
organization. All these activities have been developed by the experi-
ment station. The increasing significance of this organization's work
is indicated by the maintenance of branch stations at Princeton and
Quicksand, and five experimental fields at other points in the State.
Farmers have become increasingly conscious of the need for conserva-
tion. Work in this field is carried on by the State department of agri-
culture, Smith-Hughes teachers of vocational agriculture, various State
boards, commissions, and agencies, and, lately, through the Agricul-
tural Adjustment Administration and the agricultural conservation pro-
gram—the Tennessee Valley Authority, Farm Security Administration,
Civilian Conservation Corps, Farm Bureau Federation, and other
bodies.
6723-1236723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
TRANSPORTATION
OWING largely to natural barriers, and partly to the demands of
interstate commerce, Kentucky's lines of trade and communica-
tion by land developed north to south rather than east to west.
Pioneer Kentucky lay in the path of the great migrations from Vir-
ginia and the South to the West, and commerce between Lakes and
Gulf was borne along its bordering waterways. But mountains formed
an effective barrier to trade and transport eastward.
For nearly a century, except for the Wilderness Road through Cum-
berland Gap, the only transport route common to the three sections of
the State—mountains, Bluegrass, and western hills and downs—was the
Ohio River, tributaries of which reach back into the hills. So com-
pletely was the eastern third of the State cut off from the central and
western sections that within its isolation developed a type of Ken-
tuckian who was an enigma to the lowlanders. In the 1890's and
1900's rails were laid into the coal country in the eastern part of the
State, and many extensions of the coal-carrying lines were made there-
after. In the course of this development the Chesapeake & Ohio con-
nected Ashland and Lexington with a branch line. But even today the
only direct rail route from Kentucky to the eastern seaboard is that of
the main line of the C. & 0., which follows the valley of the Ohio to
Cincinnati.
As motor highway transport has advanced, progress has been made
in penetrating the eastern section. Two U. S. highways now traverse
the area, and a growing network of modern roads is steadily reducing
its former isolation. Transportation in its motorized form is making
Kentucky a homogeneous State.
Waterways and trails, naturally, were the first travel routes. The
southern section of the trail, or trace, from Maysville to Cumberland
Gap was the route by which most early white settlers entered the
present State of Kentucky. Known in pioneer days as the Wilderness
Road, this section today forms part of US 2SE, extending southeast
56
6723-1246723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
IV. INDUSTRY: TRANSPORTATION
6723-1256723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--6723-1266723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
WATERFRONT, LOUISVILLE
6723-1276723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
COAL MINER
MODERN COLLIERY
6723-1286723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
STRIP MINING
6723-1296723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
MISSISSIPPI RIVER AT COLUMBUS
6723-1306723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
ALONG THE PINEVILLE-HARLAN ROAD
DIX DAM, HERRINGTON LAB
6723-1316723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
BARDSTOWN DISTILLERY
6723-1326723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
TOBACCO MARKET
MULE DA'
6723-1336723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
CHAIR MAKERS
6723-1346723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
TRANSPORTATION 57
from Corbin to Cumberland Gap. North of Corbin the Federal high-
way roughly follows the old trace to Maysville.
The waterways served well as commercial routes to the West and
South, but trade with the East was developed laboriously. Drovers, in
the early days, found it profitable to collect cattle and hogs, herd them
over the mountain routes to the East, and return bearing supplies in
demand among Kentucky settlers.
The trails were improved slowly and unsatisfactorily, mostly through
the construction of toll roads by private enterprise. Maintenance was
poor, and a writer of the early nineteenth century was frank in declar-
ing that it was easier for an immigrant to reach Kansas from the east-
ern seaboard than to reach Kentucky. Nonetheless, stagecoach traffic
had an early beginning. An advertisement in the Kentucky Gazette of
August 9, 1803, announced that John Kennedy had started a stage line
from Lexington, Winchester, and Mount Sterling to Olympian Springs,
a famed resort in Bath County.
Toll roads persisted in the State until late in the century, when users
began to protest with threats and later with organized raids to destroy
the tollgates. "Shun35 pikes, too, were constructed, over which traffic
might detour to avoid the gates.
Many migrants from Pennsylvania or Virginia found it feasible to
float down the Ohio River to their new homes at Limestone (Mays-
ville), the Falls (Louisville), Yellowbanks (Owensboro), or other set-
tlements. Most of the larger cities of the State are situated on the
Ohio, partly as a result of the impetus given their growth when the
river was the main artery of trade and travel, and partly because of
the natural advantage of their position as centers of interstate traffic
by rail, and as markets and distribution points.
The Kentucky boatman of the early nineteenth century belonged to
a distinct social class. Tradition pictures him as a robust, rowdy brag-
gart, inured to drudgery and danger, and much given to snorting, slap-
ping his thigh, and proclaiming himself a "half-horse, half-alligator
man," a "snapping turtle," or a "child of calamity." He was schooled
in disaster, so there was some truth in the last term; at one time the
term "Kentucky boatman" had to be pronounced with a smile if no
hard feelings were implied.
The flatboats, keelboats, and "broadhorns" used in the river trade
gradually gave place to the steamboat, which first stirred western waters
in 1811. Within a few decades the steamboats dominated as cargo car-
riers as well as passenger carriers on the Ohio and Mississippi; and
6723-1356723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
58 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
broadhorns, flatboats, and rafts appeared for the most part at floodtime,
when back-country folk took advantage of the freshets to float crops or
lumber to market on craft of their own making.
One of the earliest railroads west of the Alleghenies was the Lex-
ington & Ohio, now part of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad. It
was chartered January 27, 1830, and was opened for traffic August 15,
1832. At its opening, it was a line six miles long, extending from
Lexington to Frankfort, with rolling stock hauled by horses; a terminus
on the Ohio had purposely been left unsettled. It was 1851 before the
L. & O. reached the river, and by that time it had undergone sev-
eral reorganizations. However, it initiated railroad construction in
Kentucky.
On March 5, 1850, the Louisville & Nashville Railroad secured a
charter for a route between the cities designated in its corporate name.
The first train over the route ran on November 1, 1859. The line
proved extremely useful to the Federal forces during the War between
the States.
Following the war, railroads became an obsession with numbers of
Kentucky towns. Some of the lines built in the flush of railroad fever
have been abandoned and their names forgotten. Others, planned to
serve a functional need, have endured either as independent lines or
as links or branches of larger systems. Today the Lexington & Big
Sandy forms part of the Chesapeake & Ohio, and several short lines
operate as part of the L. & N.
Unusual in character among railroads is the Cincinnati, New Orleans
& Texas Pacific Railway, constructed and owned by the city of Cin-
cinnati, Ohio. Chartered in 1871, by 1881 it had constructed 340 miles
of track connecting Cincinnati with Chattanooga, extending through
Kentucky and Tennessee. At present it is operated under lease by the
Southern Railway System.
A glance at a railroad map of Kentucky shows that most of the major
transportation systems in Kentucky touch it only along the Ohio River.
Further examination reveals, however, that the State is quite ad'equately
served, except for a comparatively small part of the south central sec-
tion, by the systems named above, together with the Illinois Central
and a number of smaller lines. Although some counties are completely
without rail facilities, the railroad and the motor bus in combination
leave few areas without modern transport of some kind. There are
today in Kentucky approximately 3,821 miles of track, owned or oper-
ated by more than twenty railroads. Of this mileage all but about 165
miles is either owned or operated by class 1 railroads.
6723-1366723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
TRANSPORTATION 59
Electric railroads, or interurbans, as they were more generally called,
enjoyed a brief prosperity at the beginning of the present century.
With the exception of the electric lines connecting Louisville and New
Albany, Indiana, and Cincinnati, Ohio, and its sister cities of northern
Kentucky included in the Greater Cincinnati area, there are no inter-
urbans in Kentucky today. The appearance of the private automobile
foreshadowed their end, the motor bus made it certain, and the depres-
sion delivered the final blow.
As the railroads gradually evolved into the present-day efficient car-
riers of freight and passengers, river traffic languished. Passenger
travel by river has almost entirely disappeared, although some excur-
sion boats are still operated. Volume-freight traffic on the Ohio and
Mississippi is gaining, however, under the program being carried out by
the Corps of Army Engineers and the Inland Waterways Corporation,
operating the Federal Barge Lines.
The introduction of the automobile intensified, in Kentucky as else-
where, the demand for better roads. The constitution adopted in 1890
had prohibited the State from expending funds on highways, but this
provision was removed in 1909. In 1912 a State highway commission
was created, and in 1914 the legislature authorized a system of roads
connecting county seats. This act was modified in 1920 by an act pro-
viding for a primary system of State highways aggregating 4,000 miles.
There are now (1939) 62,633 miles of roads within the State. Ap-
proximately 500 miles of improved roads are being added annually by
the State highway commission, in addition to improved mileage added
by the various counties.
Since 1920 improved highways have encouraged the growth of a net-
work of bus lines that covers the entire State. Interstate buses are
well designed and equipped, and local buses are becoming more com-
fortable and modern. The largest bus center in Kentucky is Lexington,
which is the hub of a system of fine highways in all directions, over
which local and interstate coaches carry hundreds of passengers daily.
Air travel in Kentucky is still in the embryonic stage of development.
The only important commercial airport in Kentucky is Bowman Field,
in Louisville, used by American Airlines and Eastern Airlines. It is an
important stop on the American Airlines route from Cleveland to Los
Angeles, by way of Louisville, Nashville, Dallas, and Fort Worth; and
on the Eastern Airlines route from Chicago to Miami, by way of In-
dianapolis, Louisville, and Jacksonville. Many municipalities maintain
airports for local air traffic, chiefly of the air taxi type.
6723-1376723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
MANUFACTURING AND
MINING
KENTUCKY'S industries are widely distributed. Much the greater
part of the State's factory output issues from the towns along the
Ohio River but both eastern and western Kentucky are rich in minerals,
though the east far outyields the west in tonnage. Yet Kentucky is
rightly regarded as being primarily an agricultural State. The value
of factory and mine products is nearly three times that of crops and
livestock, but, according to the U. S. Census of 1930, more than 340,000
Kentuckians were gainfully employed on farms, while about 203,000
were gainfully employed in mines, shops, and factories. Interest in
agriculture is strong even in the State's industrial centers; and the Ken-
tuckian becomes more excited over a killing frost or a rainy spring
than over Dow-Jones averages or the Bedeaux system, and takes more
interest in thoroughbred foals than in the latest model punch press.
Something of the native temperament seems to have found expression
in Kentucky's favorite industries, for the Bluegrass State is most popu-
larly known as a producer of fine rye and bourbon whiskies, and of
rich, sweet smoking and chewing tobacco. In quantity of whisky pro-
duced it leads the Nation, and in tobacco it is outranked by only two
States.
Colonization of Kentucky involved transplanting not merely people
but an economy capable of serving community life. Men of numerous
trades, professions, and businesses joined the rush to the West, bring-
ing with them their tools and experience.
Isolated from markets and sources of supply, Kentucky was not slow
in putting to use the abilities of its pioneer craftsmen. Activities essen-
tial to life in the new settlements developed with the clearing of the
land. Salt-making, tanning, gristmill construction, gunpowder manu-
facture, lead molding, iron smelting, and the production of nails, rope,
linen, woolen cloth, and paper were among the early industries. The
trade in furs, first product of the region, expanded into an exchange and
60
6723-1386723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
MANUFACTURING AND MINING 6l
export business that warranted highways across the mountains, and that
became a potent argument in favor of the Louisiana Purchase and the
opening of the Mississippi.
Tools and equipment for replacement had either to be made on the
spot, in the early days, or packed in over long, difficult trails. This
accounts for the early development of smelting and forging, antedating
by nearly a century the rise of the State's present steel industry. In
the 1800's Lexington was a thriving industrial town with 58 manufac-
turing establishments representing 13 industries. Twelve of the plants
were cotton mills, four were hat factories, and four were carriage works.
The difficulty of transporting unprocessed grain to market was an incen-
tive to distilling. Georgetown had a distillery as early as 1789, and in
1810 two thousand stills were operating in the State. By that time
Kentucky also had nine linseed oil mills, 63 gunpowder plants, and 267
tanneries. Small enterprises and trade limited to the immediate locality
were the rule, but every town was eager to outdo the rest. Among the
aspiring commercial and industrial centers Lexington early established
its leadership.
Rapid settlement created a demand for manufactures that for a time
ran ahead of production, and this stimulated plant expansion to a point
where surpluses became a plague. The clamor for free navigation of
the lower Mississippi grew stronger. In 1803 the United States pur-
chased the Louisiana Territory. The opening of the river sent an in-
creased flow of goods toward New Orleans, and loosed forces which in
time were to disrupt and reorganize the economy of the Republic.
When, in the second decade of the nineteenth century, the first steam-
boat appeared on western waters, the Ohio's importance as an artery
of commerce was vastly increased. The river towns began to flourish
as centers of manufacture and trade after 1820, and inland towns
correspondingly declined. The Bluegrass, forced to move its goods
over highways, could not compete with the river towns, with navigable
waters for heavy freight transportation at their doors. Louisville, at
the Falls of the Ohio, prospered as the transshipping point for cargoes
from both up and down the river, and had the added advantage of
cheap power from the falls.
Hemp, cotton, woolen, and linen mills prospered in early times.
Even in the 1860's American sailing ships were equipped with rope
from the Bluegrass, and Great Lakes schooners provided a market for
a considerable time after. The great cause of decline in the State's
hemp industry was the replacement of sailing ships with steamships in
6723-1396723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
62 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
the final decades of the century, and the decline was accelerated when,
after the war with Spain, sisal and other fibers were placed on the free
list of imports. A single hemp factory continued to operate at Frank-
fort as late as 1937. Cotton, woolen, and linen factories underwent a
similar decline.
The extension of railroad lines into the interior of the State in the
final half of the century stimulated lumbering, mining, and manufacture
in some of the more retarded areas; but elsewhere they failed to stimu-
late the expansion of established industries or promote the development
of new ones. Mainly, the railroad strengthened the dominant economic
position of the best-situated river towns. One by one the small fac-
tories of the interior towns moved or ceased operation. Today only a
few remain. Portable lumber mills now work the cut-over lands for
stock for barrel staves and similar special forms. Industries in which
proximity to raw supplies is important, like quarrying, brick and tile
making, and mining, are represented by plants here and there.
The few small factories surviving in the interior have profited, like
the local merchant, from improved highways and motor-truck transpor-
tation. The motor truck has made it practicable for manufacturing
plants in large industrial centers to maintain branch supply houses at
well-chosen points in the interior, through which local dealers may be
restocked frequently with goods in quantities suited to their needs. At
the same time the motor truck has enabled the local manufacturer
greatly to extend his market area. Livestock, tobacco, horticultural
and dairy products, and a variety of other local commodities now find
their way to market by highway.
The concentration *of large-scale industries along the Ohio makes the
economic map of the State a wide agricultural zone, with an industrial
fringe along its northern border. The State's tobacco crop is processed
in major part in the factories at Louisville, and this city also produces
the bulk of Kentucky's whiskies. A number of distilleries, however,
making brands that have been established in the market for many
years, continue to operate at their original locations in the Bluegrass
and Pennyrile, and west as far as Owensboro.
Most Ohio River towns prospered during the War between the States
as supply centers for the armies of the North; this was especially true
of Louisville and Covington. The railroads brought prosperity mainly
to the already flourishing river cities, which became division terminals
and distribution and transshipment points because of the natural ad-
vantages of their locations. Kentucky capitalists chose to invest in
6723-1406723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
MANUFACTURING AND MINING 63
further development of their home territory, and this tendency still
persists, serving in a degree to stimulate legitimate industry and re-
strain wildcat speculation. The results of this policy are evident today
in the wide variety of the small-scale industries in the river towns.
Cabinet making, organ building, shoe production, and the manufacture
of wire cloth are but a few of the many industrial activities of the
valley. Often the plants were started as small shops by craftsmen who
landed from river boats in the 1830's or 1840's with little baggage
except the tools of their trades.
Following the War between the States Louisville became Kentucky's
leading industrial city, and first among cities east of the Mississippi
and south of the Mason and Dixon Line in volume and total of manu-
factured products and wages. Ashland and Newport have become
minor centers of steel manufacture. Covington's industrial pattern is
characterized by variety. Owensboro and Henderson, distribution cen-
ters for the western Kentucky coal fields, have developed extensive
marketing connections for their agricultural and horticultural products
as well as for their manufactured specialties, which include textiles and
electrical supplies. Paducah, like Louisville, a rail-terminal town, is
known chiefly for its locomotive repair shops and as a river-boat con-
struction center.
Kentucky's manufacturing establishments in 1933 numbered about
1,700. Wages paid totaled about $62,000,000, and the value of product
was about $500,000,000. Approximately three-fifths of the output by
value issued from Louisville. In all, about 70,000 wage earners were
employed.
Kentucky's liquor distilleries in 1935 produced about 197,000,000
gallons of spirits, mainly bourbon, corn, and rye whiskies, with a value
of approximately $60,000,000. Total wages to 7,500 distillery workers
were $4,825,806; more than $11,000,000 was spent for grain supplies;
and the bill for cooperage was more than $4,500,000. The industry
maintains a stock of between four hundred million and five hundred
million gallons in process of aging, representing an investment of
$150,000,000. The State's 57 active bonded distilleries produced 43
percent of the Nation's distilled liquor output in the fiscal year 1937.
Kentucky's tobacco industry, first in dollars-and-cents importance in
the State's economy, processed 343,865,000 pounds of leaf, grown
mainly in the central, southern, and western sections, in 1937. Of this
total, about 270,000,000 pounds were burley—which forms the bulk of
the average American cigarette—and 55,000,000 pounds were dark to-
6723-1416723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
64 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
bacco, used in cigars, pipe and chewing tobaccos, and snuff. The value
of the crop to the producers was $64,990,000.
Considerable quantities of Kentucky's dark tobacco are exported.
Cigarette production in the State was 11,742,614,000 in 1937—an in-
crease of 140,000,000 over that of 1936. This placed the State third
in cigarette output. It is first in burley production and third in pro-
duction of processed tobacco.
Meat packing in Kentucky centers around the Bourbon Stock Yards
in Louisville. In this industry Kentucky leads the southeastern area
of the Nation. Livestock and other raw supplies valued at more than
$13,000,000 were processed in Kentucky packing plants in 1935. Flour
and grain processing, railroad rolling-stock repair, petroleum refining,
and bread making are other major industrial activities in Kentucky,
and more than sixty other industries contribute to the total annual
product value of $300,000,000 to $500,000,000.
Kentucky's mineral production is at present confined to coal, petro-
leum, natural gas, fluorspar, limestone, rock asphalt, and a number of
minor substances like the finer plastic and refractory clays and clays
commonly utilized in tile making.
In earlier times a number of other minerals were produced locally
which are now supplied from more economical sources outside the State.
Early settlers in the Kentucky area obtained their salt from the licks
frequented by deer, boiling the water from the salt springs until only
the solid content was left. In Mammoth Cave and elsewhere deposits
of saltpeter were processed for gunpowder by leaching. Lead was found
in quantities sufficient for local purposes, and iron ore of good quality
was mined in the eastern part of the State. Commercial iron mining
was carried on near Ashland as late as the 1870's.
Early in the nineteenth century coal began to be mined in the moun-
tains and shipped by barge to Lexington, Louisville, and other towns
for use in both forging and heating. The western fields early developed
a trade in coal with New Orleans. Limestone from cliffs along the
Kentucky River—" Kentucky marble"—was used to construct both
public and private buildings; the old capitol at Frankfort exhibits the
natural beauty of this stone. Plastic clays found in scattered deposits
in central and eastern Kentucky provided the settlers with material for
earthenware, and brick and tile clays found everywhere in the State
served for the construction of many homes.
Modern coal mining began to develop in the 1870's, when a blast
furnace was blown in at Ashland, now important for iron and steel,
6723-1426723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
MANUFACTURING AND MINING 65
using ore and fuel of local origin. Cheaper ores from Missouri and
later from the Mesabi Range in Minnesota made iron mining uneco-
nomical in Kentucky, but coal mining in the Big Sandy Valley devel-
oped steadily. Coal mines in both the eastern and western parts of the
State found a market in the growing industries along the Ohio. Rail
connections with Great Lakes ports later widened the market for Ken-
tucky coal.
Mining operations in the later industrial period were at first carried
on in the crude style traditional of development by individuals of lim-
ited means. Farmers or lessees opened small tunnels, leaving pillars of
coal for supports to save the expense of timbering. Coal was hauled
by wagon to the barges. But gradually the railroads penetrated the
mountainous coal country, and after 1900 coal mining became a big-
capital industry (see Labor).
Coal production in Kentucky rose from 169,000 tons in 1870 to an
average of more than 30,000,000 tons between 1916 and 1920, mainly
because of expanding markets and rail transportation. Production in
the eastern fields mounted to more than 60,000,000 in 1929, and
dropped to 35,000,000 tons at the low point of the depression starting
in 1930. In 1936 production had risen to an estimated 47,570,000
tons, with a value at the mine mouth of $65,956,000. One-ninth of
this total tonnage is utilized for coke production, mostly outside the
State.
Kentucky petroleum production was 5,628,000 barrels in 1936, with
a value of $6,000,000. The value of natural gas produced was
$17,730,000 at the point of consumption.
The output of fluorspar, from which fluorite—necessary in modern
steel manufacture—is obtained, is about 80,000 short tons a year. This
is about half the national total. Total annual production of Kentucky
minerals, by value, is about $100,000,000.
6723-1436723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
LABOR
KENTUCKY labor, both white and Negro, has always been almost
wholly native born. Its development has been essentially rural
and ties in closely with lumbering and river transportation.
In early times, settlers from Virginia, the Carolinas, and Maryland
dominated the Bluegrass and the Pennyrile. Many of their slaves were
skilled craftsmen, who worked, when not employed at home, for people
who paid their masters for their services. Thus they were a source of
income to their owners, and as such were assured a degree of security
against sale.
Coincidentally, the use of white labor was developing. Many early
settlers, especially those from Pennsylvania and other Northern States,
took up land in the aountains, where slavery was impracticable. Re-
stricted by nature in its agricultural development, the mountain area
soon had an excess of white labor that migrated to the lowlands and
competed there with the labor of slaves, which was never sufficient to
meet the demand. In earlier times white labor was largely engaged in
logging in the great river valleys, and in clearing and farming the cut-
over lands. The two processes went hand in hand; and the disappear-
ance of marketable timber left a surplus of white laborers who, when
they did not settle down to farming, either "followed the timber" or
migrated to other parts of the State. Such was the general situation
after the War between the States, when coal mining, oil production,
and other industries widened the field of labor and extended it through-
out Kentucky.
Of great importance in the developing labor situation was the early
rise and subsequent decline of industrial centers. Lexington, a thriving
manufacturing center in the 1800's, was plagued with piled-up surpluses
and a lack of outlets. The decline of the city's manufacturing, which
began about 1825, is illustrative of a process then taking place through-
out the State: small community industries were being relocated at
places convenient for land-and-water transfer, and in such places a
population was growing which was essentially urban in outlook.
66
6723-1446723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
LABOR 67
With the development of the Ohio River as a major artery of com-
merce between the Ohio Valley States and the West and South,
trading and industrial river ports grew up in which the older Kentucky
tradition had little part. The Middle East and the South fought for
Kentucky's developing trade, and for a time the South prevailed. But
between 1830 and 1860 the Middle East, by weight of numbers, in-
creased its influence and won out. Migrants pouring down the Ohio
settled in the river towns, and to their northern traditions were added
the traditions of craftsmen who emigrated from Germany in large num-
bers after the Revolution of 1848.
The labor traditions of Covington, Newport, Louisville, Paducah, and
other river towns are largely of such derivation. The late-comers—first
as journeymen, later as the owners of shops—set the pattern of labor
conditions that prevailed up to the time of the War between the States.
Long hours were the rule. Most workmen supplied their own tools.
Employers furnished space and materials and found a market for the
goods. Wages, affected in many cases by slave competition, were low,
but the prospect of a worker's becoming head of his own shop tended
to head off union agitation.
The pre-war record of labor unionism is shorV,^,nd vague. In the
1830's seven trade unions were in existence in Louisville. The tailors
organized in 1835. Sometime in the 1850's the carpenters of Hopkins-
ville formed a union along co-operative lines, and those at Ashland
and Paducah followed suit. There is no further record of union activi-
ties until after the war. Out of the chaos of the War between the
States rose the unionism of modern times.
Disbandment of the armies sent masses of men into the labor market
to seek work. Kentucky had its full quota, and in addition had the
problem of employing the masses of freed Negroes.
Many Negroes collected in Louisville and other industrial towns,
competed for jobs, and by their numbers depressed wages. They found
work in semiskilled pursuits, or served as doormen, porters, cleaners,
servants, hotel attendants, and the like. In more recent times the
Negro's field of occupation has widened, and there are Negroes today
who own small industries or are members of the professions. But the
problems of Negro employment, housing, and wages in the main are
still unsolved.
The war was followed by the decline of the hemp industry, which
formerly had given off-season work in the mills to farm labor. The
slack in employment was taken up by an expansion of tobacco growing,
6723-1456723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
68 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
a development that entailed an expansion in curing, warehousing, and
marketing. White and Negro labor was attracted to the tobacco cen-
ters, where it found quarters in the low-rent areas, worked in the ware-
house in the fall and winter, and hired out in the growing season to
planters who collected and delivered their daily quota of field hands.
The pattern is the same today. Their gregarious habits of living and
working have resulted in little or no movement to organize on the part
of the farm laborers, who form a large proportion of the working popu-
lation of the State. The total farm population in Kentucky is
1,307,816, according to the Statistical Abstract of the United States
for 1936; persons classified as family labor number 414,222, and those
classified as hired help number 36,915. Many farmers belong to co-
operative organizations, but there is little if any organization among
farm workers, Negro or white.
The movement toward labor unionism in Kentucky, feebly defined at
best, disappeared during the war period 1861-65. In the war years
labor was in demand, wages were high, and betterment through co-
operative effort, the working principle of the early unions, lost its ap-
peal. It took a depression—that of the 1870's—to bring to life the
idea of group action among the workers. The Kentucky union move-
ment took form in local craft unions, the aim of which was mutual
self-help for the immediate benefit of workers and their families. At
first the unions of the 1870's gave no special emphasis to collective bar-
gaining, but tried instead to resume action on co-operative lines. Efforts
were made to provide employment for jobless workers by co-operative
means, and the Knights of Labor established stores (in 1880) and at
least one tobacco company (at Earlington), the profits of which were
divided equally among capital, labor (the laborer usually supplied the
capital by stock purchases), and the Knights of Labor (as the promot-
ing and fostering organization). Failure of the Knights of Labor to
live up to its promise as an instrument for bettering conditions resulted
after 1886 in loss of membership, and it disappeared from the scene.
The American Federation of Labor then came to the fore, with a pro-
gram of better working conditions, shorter hours, and fair wages; most
local unions, whether affiliated with the Federation or not, followed the
same line.
Most labor disputes during this period hinged on wages, but union
recognition grew in importance as an objective. Employers7 associa-
tions were forming and growing, and the fight against unionism was
carried on ruthlessly. According to A. E. Suffern, during a coal strike
6723-1466723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
LABOR 69
starting in November 1900, in Hopkins County, operators secured an
injunction forbidding the United Mine Workers of America to supply
strikers with food.
The change in union aims, noted above, was made in response to
technological and organizational changes in industry out of which de-
veloped the present industrial order.
After the southward expansion from the Ohio River of railroads con-
necting the Deep South with the North, the river towns, notably Louis-
ville, Covington, and Paducah, became centers of labor unionization
activity. A wage cut early in the summer of 1877 provoked a railroad
strike, in which demonstrations were suppressed by police action. The
strike, which coincided in time with others throughout the Nation, was
apparently under local leadership and was fought out over issues in-
volved in the relations between the Louisville & Nashville Railroad
and its employees. Other strikes, local in significance and effect, at
times have interrupted the generally amicable relations of labor and
capital, but persuasion and appeal to reason have often ended a dispute
peaceably.
The period of industrial expansion ending with American entry into
the World War was marked by the passage of laws fostered by the
unions. Among these laws were measures widening the field and limit-
ing the hours of women's labor, specifying the industries and limiting
the hours of labor for minors, and providing protection for workers in
hazardous occupations and compensation for workers injured in the line
of duty. The influence of the unions has continued to grow, but the
State as a whole is far from unionized, largely because of the peculiar
characteristics of many of its industries, chief among which is the pro-
duction of tobacco. Besides this deterrent factor, the tradition of self-
sufficiency operates outside the Ohio River towns against active labor
organization based on current union conceptions of the relation between
capital and labor.
Especially striking has been the expansion of Kentucky's coal indus-
try. The State's coal production in 1870 was only 169,000 tons; in
1900 it reached 5,182,000 short tons. Coal mining gave work to men
of the mountain areas, where lumbering had become a minor industry
and where farming, above the subsistence level, was difficult. But until
the end of the century the mines were small, individually owned, and
manned by local labor. Many operators worked side by side with their
men.
After 1900 mining rapidly became mechanized, especially in the east-
6723-1476723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
yo KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
ern part of the State. Railroad branches were built into the coal coun-
try and large capital investments and corporate ownership became the
rule.
Shortly after the World War, with living costs increasing, the workers
in Kentucky, as elsewhere, began to organize for higher wages. Wage
strikes of steel workers in Newport and of coal miners in the western
part of the State during the 1920's, and the bitterness engendered by
the struggles, are still remembered in those areas. In the steel industry
the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel and Tin Workers did little
more than collect dues. If union men displayed militancy, as they did
in Newport when the militia appeared with a tank and enforced a cur-
few law, that was their own affair. The Newport Rolling Mill Com-
pany (since absorbed by Armco) and the Andrews Steel Company
drove the unions from their mills, membership dropped, and many
locals ceased to exist. Events in Harlan County since 1931 emphasize
a condition unlike that prevailing generally in Kentucky industry or
elsewhere in the Kentucky coal industry.
Natural advantages favoring cheap coal production in Harlan were
seized upon in 1910 by local enterprise. Capital was secured, a rail-
road was built, and in 1911 the first coal was shipped. Men flocked
in from the surrounding hills to work at the mines, and the population
of the county increased at an extraordinary rate. Mountaineers, drawn
from their hill farms by the high wages, or what seemed so to them,
came to the mines to work, to live in company shacks, to trade in com-
pany stores, and to be policed by company guards.
Limitations imposed on workers became irksome, but it was not prac-
ticable to resist the rulers of the county, who were mainly intent on pro-
tecting their income and on blocking all organization that might
threaten it. Labor unions were told peremptorily to keep out, and the
Harlan County Coal Operators' Association showed that on this point
it meant business. In the course of five years of operator rule Harlan
County became known as "Bloody Harlan/' and labor conditions there
became popularly identified with those in Kentucky as a whole.
After two years of increasing unemployment, unionization of large
numbers of miners was effected by the United Mine Workers of
America. Strikes that developed were met with the usual strikebreaking
tactics, including intimidation and worse by company police and the
importation of non-union employees. One strike brought the "Battle of
Evarts" on May 5, 1935, in which two deputy sheriffs in the employ
6723-1486723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
LABOR 71
of mine owners were killed and a dozen or more miners were killed or
reported missing. Something like civil war followed.
Attempts by private organizations to learn the facts and provide re-
lief for out-of-work miners were repressed by the operators and authori-
ties. Beginning in 1931 the violation of the rights of miners, organizers,
investigators, and relief workers resulted in many protests, but no action
was taken by the Government until the La Follette Civil Liberties
Committee started an inquiry in 1935. This inquiry was still in prog-
ress when the Wagner Labor Relations Act, affirming the right of
workers collectively to bargain through a union of their own choosing,
became law. The National Labor Relations Board subsequently issued
an order to "cease and desist" from interference with unionization
against the operators' association.
The order was ignored by the mine owners, and indictments on
charges of conspiracy to deprive citizens of their constitutional rights
were returned against 23 members of the operators7 association, against
a like number of individual heads of the companies involved, and
against 21 deputy sheriffs allegedly in company employ. Feeling in
Harlan ran so high that venue in the case was changed to near-by
London, Laurel County. The trial began May 16, 1938, and ended
August 1 with a disagreement of the jury. Action for retrial was halted
when the operators signed an agreement on September 1 which sub-
stantially satisfied the miners' demands.
The years since the World War have brought difficult problems to
the unions. A policy of working constructively with business organi-
zations and with State and Federal Governments has lessened the im-
pact of depression. Organized labor in the State today is for peace in
the labor movement, improvement of labor and social laws, and a more
comprehensive educational program within the ranks of labor.
6723-1496723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
THE NEGRO
APPROXIMATELY 226,240 or 7.8 percent of the 2,900,000 people
in Kentucky are Negroes. They live for the most part in the
inner Bluegrass area, of which Lexington is the center, and in the better
farming sections of the Pennyrile around Hopkinsville. Despite their
relative numerical unimportance, Kentucky Negroes are an integral
part of the State's life and have contributed notably to its development.
In 1751, when Christopher Gist came into the Kentucky country in
search of lands for the Ohio Company, his only attendant was a Negro
servant. Fifteen years later a mulatto slave was one of a party of five
exploring this region. A few of the pioneers from Virginia brought
their slaves when they migrated to the West, but as a rule the earliest
settlers did not own slaves, since they were poor and slave property
was a luxury. Such slaves as were brought into the Kentucky country
in the early days were usually affectionately attached to the household
through long years of service. In accounts of Indian raids slaves are
reported as loyal and daring. One of them, Monk, owned by Colonel
William Estill, was an expert in making gunpowder and a preacher of
ability, listened to by both Negroes and whites.
Though slavery, as an institution, was slow in becoming established,
there were more than 12,000 slaves by 1790, and their number in-
creased during the next 40 years. In 1833, when a quarter of the total
population was Negro, it was thought prudent to legislate against fur-
ther importation of slaves. Thereafter the proportion of Negroes to
whites decreased.
This was partly because of the profitable traffic with sections of the
Deep South where cotton, cane, rice, and other crops dependent on
slave labor were raised. Another factor was the Underground Railroad,
so named—according to one version of the origin of the term—by a
Kentuckian. Fostered by Northern money, directed by shrewd, re-
sourceful men, it spirited fugitives across the Ohio River into the
friendly shelter of Ohio and Indiana. Despite the reputedly mild and
patriarchal character of slavery in Kentucky, Negroes took advantage
72
6723-1506723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
THE NEGRO 73
of the opportunity thus offered to gain their freedom. The State's loss
in slave property has been placed at not less than $200,000 annually,
in the decades immediately preceding the War between the States.
Since the State did not secede from the Union, its slaves were not
freed by the Emancipation Proclamation, but by the Thirteenth Amend-
ment, enacted on December 18, 1865. The State legislature passed a
civil rights act, repealing the old slave code, in February 1866.
In reality the slave system was not ended by legislation but by enlist-
ment. Negroes deserted from the fields, or were forcibly taken, to serve
in the Union Army. The historian, E. Merton Coulter, states that
"10,000 slaves left the State during the year 1863; slaves enlisted at
the rate of a hundred a day, and after the war, were freed at the rate
of 500 a day." The 1860 census showed 236,167 Negroes in the State,
of whom 10,684 were free; the census of 1870 showed 222,210
Negroes.
Though losing steadily in ratio, Negro population has gained in num-
bers and changed in distribution. During the World War there was
considerable migration to the North, where labor was at a premium.
Then and later a shift set in from the poorer farms to the State's in-
dustrial centers—principally to Louisville, Covington, Newport, and
Ashland—and to the mining regions. In 1930 approximately half of
Kentucky's Negro population was urban. Of the 109,479 Negroes on
farms, 9,104 were listed as operators; 4,175 of these owned their farms,
4,914 were tenants, and 15 were managers.
The proportion of those gainfully employed is high, and their occu-
pations are varied. The 1930 United States Census lists a total of
106,572 gainfully employed, including 7,346 in coal mines, 3,414 in
railroads, 2,239 in building construction, 2,226 chauffeurs and truck
and tractor drivers, 1,473 laborers, porters, and helpers in stores, and
1,222 waiters (men and women).
In the "white collar" class, the census lists 39 Negro college presi-
dents and professors, 86 trained nurses, 25 lawyers, 37 dentists, 129
doctors, 727 clergymen, and 1,615 teachers. The need for expansion of
Negro activities in these occupations is shown by the fact that there is
1 trained nurse for every 2,828 Negroes, 1 lawyer for every 9,142
Negroes and 1 doctor for every 1,752 Negroes in the State.
Two large Negro insurance companies are located in Louisville, fac-
ing each other on Walnut Street. There are three Negro newspapers
in the same city.: the American Baptist, the Louisville Leader and the
Louisville Defender.
6723-1516723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
74 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
In ante bellum days most of the free Negroes lived in Louisville, and
attempts were made to provide education for them. The Freedmen's
Guil.d took charge of such efforts after the war, and in a short time
established 35 schools with 58 teachers, many of them Negroes. There
was, however, no public provision for financing these schools and tui-
tion fees were necessarily low. Private generosity had to be depended
on for funds, and northern Negroes contributed a great share of the
donations.
In 1866 a law was passed providing that the proceeds of all Negro
taxes should be divided equally between Negro schools and Negro
paupers. The principle of equality in education was incorporated in
the constitution of 1891, perhaps as a result of agitation in 1873 and a
threat of appeal to the State and Federal courts for equal school ad-
vantages. During the present century educational facilities for Negro
children have improved.
In one institution only—Berea College—have Negroes in Kentucky
been permitted to attend school with whites. But this practice was
discontinued in 1904 when the law prohibiting "mixed" schools was
passed. A division of property and endowment was effected, and Lin-
coln Institute, a high school for Negroes, modeled on Berea, was es-
tablished in Shelby County.
The Louisville Municipal College for Negroes is an outgrowth of
Simmons University, founded in 1873 by the General Association of
Colored Baptists of Kentucky as the Kentucky Normal and Theological
Institute. In 1920 a proposal for a million-dollar bond issue for the
University of Louisville was defeated, largely because it did not have
the support of the Negro electorate. The proposal, with provisions
for earmarking $100,000 of the issue for the advancement of higher
education for Negroes in Louisville, was resubmitted in 1925 and
passed. Simmons University was purchased, renamed the Louisville
Municipal College for Negroes, and opened as part of the University
of Louisville on February 9, 1931. The institution is now recognized
as a four-year college, and has the highest scholastic rating of any
Negro institution in the State.
The only other State-supported institution of higher learning in the
State is the Kentucky State Industrial College at Frankfort. Since
no State institution granting master's and higher degrees admits
Negroes, the Anderson-Mayer Aid Act, passed in 1935, requires the
State to defray expenses of Negro students wishing to secure ad-
vanced degrees in institutions outside the State.
6723-1526723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
THE NEGRO 75
The church is to a considerable degree the center of social life for
the Kentucky Negro. The first Negro church in Kentucky was the
Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, organized in Louisville in 1816.- It
was not until after emancipation, however, that the Negro church de-
veloped, for the Negro slave generally attended his master's church,
worshiping in a gallery set aside for the purpose. Sometimes separate
Negro services were held in schoolhouses and vacant church buildings,
and gave rise to preachers who achieved more than local fame. Josiah
Henson, a slave in Davies County, preached widely in both America
and England after escaping from bondage. He is best known as one
of the many prototypes of Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom."
Total State membership of Negro churches today is 127,126; the Bap-
tist, with 83,837 members, the African Methodist Episcopal, with
10,492, and the Colored Methodist Episcopal, with 7,715 are the three
major denominations.
. In politics the Kentucky Negro has been traditionally Republican,
but in recent years he has supported the Democratic party. In Louis-
ville, Lexington, Hopkinsville, and Paducah the Negro vote is often a
decisive factor. As has been noted above the Negro vote was largely
responsible for the establishment of the Louisville Municipal College
for Negroes, and other advances for Negroes in the educational field
have been won through the ballot box. Phil Brown, Kentucky's out-
standing Negro in politics, was appointed Commissioner of Conciliation,
in the United States Department of Labor in April 1921 and served
in this capacity until November 1923. Representative C. W. Ander-
son, Jr., a Negro of Louisville, has served in the State legislature since
1933.
Housing facilities for Negroes, long a reproach to property owners
and to those in authority, are improving. Many fine homes, well main-
tained, are owned and occupied by Negroes. The Federal Housing
Administration completed one Negro project, College Court in Louis-
ville, in 1937 and has others under immediate consideration.
In all the wars fought since Kentucky became a State, the Negro
has played his part with credit and distinction. Approximately 23,700
Negroes served in the War between the States; hundreds saw service
in the Spanish-American War, and 12,580, or more than 14 percent
of the Kentuckians in the World War, were Negroes.
Among Kentucky Negroes who have won distinction in their chosen
fields are Bishop Alexander Walters, civic and political leader; Allen
Allensworth, chaplain of the Twenty-fourth Infantry; Charles Young,
6723-1536723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
76 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
Twenty-fourth Infantry; Isaac Murphy, famous jockey; Roland Hayes,
the singer, a native of Georgia, but resident in Louisville; Stephen
Bishop, one of the explorers of Mammoth Cave; Joseph Seamon Cotter,
the poet, and his son, Joseph Seamon Cotter, Jr., also a poet; Ernest
Hogan, showman and one of the popularizers of "jazz77; and H. C.
Russell, Negro specialist in the United States Office of Education.
6723-1546723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
RELIGION
CHURCH membership in Kentucky has increased at a rate faster
than that of the population. Almost one-half of the people of
the State—approximately a million—are church members today, while
only about one person in 12 claimed membership in 1800.
The different religious sects, of which there are nearly 60, show
great disparity in size and represent divisions and subdivisions within
some of the major 'denominations. The Baptists, the largest single
group, have a total membership of 425,000, of which 300,000 are in the
Southern Baptist Convention and the remainder in nine other Baptist
divisions. The Catholics come next in point of numbers, with 180,000
members, followed by the Methodists with 170,000 members dis-
tributed among eight subdenominations. The Disciples of Christ
(better known in Kentucky as the Christian Church) have a member-
ship of 122,000, and the Presbyterians (subdivided into five groups)
number 52,000. The remaining 50,000 church members are found in
more than 50 smaller organizations.
The religious history of the State falls roughly into four periods:
the time of pioneering, the decades of the Great Revival beginning in
1797, the period dominated by the slavery issue and the War between
the States; and what may be considered the modern epoch, following
reconstruction and extending to the present. As the story unfolds,
the growth of the different denominations and their relative status
today, as well as the underlying causes of their schisms, become clear.
Pioneering days were marked by the missionary zeal of the first
pastors and circuit riders and, conversely, by a general indifference
to religious matters on the part of the general populace. An Epis-
copalian minister, the Reverend John Lythe, preached the first sermon
of which there is any record in 1775. The first recorded preaching by
a Baptist minister took place at Harrodsburg the following year, but
Baptist services were probably held before that. Increasing religious
activity came in the 1780's. Three Baptist churches were established
in 1781 at Severn's Valley (now in Elizabethtown), Cedar Creek, and
77
6723-1556723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
78 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
Gilbert's Creek; the first Methodist church west of the Alleghenies
was organized near Danville in 1783; and during the following year
Reverend David Rice settled there to take charge of three associations
with about twenty churches. By this time the Presbyterians had or-
ganized their first presbytery with twelve churches, and a Roman
Catholic church had been built at Holy Cross near Rohan Knobs. In
1789 there were three Methodist circuits; the first annual conference of
Methodists was held near Lexington in 1790. When Kentucky be-
came a State in 1792 there were forty-two churches with a combined
membership of 3,095.
But despite this apparent activity of organized religion, morals were
at low ebb at the end of the eighteenth century, according to the ac-
counts of eyewitnesses. Frontier conditions and general religious in-
difference throughout the country at this time would seem to give
credence to these contemporary estimates. The time was ripe for the
Great Revival.
The first signs appeared in 1797 when James McGready, a Presby-
terian minister, came from South Carolina to take charge of three
churches in Logan County. By 1800 the revival spirit had swept over
the entire State and the adjoining territory. The period was marked
by a wave of religious excitement that found expression in the re-
vivalist or camp meeting type of service and led to a dramatic in-
crease in church membership.
One striking psychological phenomenon associated with the revival
meetings (and indeed with similar meetings today) is known as the
"jerks." People were seized with violent convulsions, the head jerking
spasmodically from side to side. Some fell into a coma-like state;
others rolled on the ground, jumped and ran, danced, barked, gave
way to hysterical laughter, or had trances and visions. A high tide of
emotionalism swept over the meetings and kindled a flame of religious
fervor.
The Presbyterians, among whom the revival movement first showed
itself, failed to profit by it. Instead, they split on the rock of doc-
trinal and practical differences. The revival spirit, as it spread through
the State, created a demand for preachers that could not be met by
the number of trained ministers available. Opportunities opened up
by the awakening religious interest had to be lost, or men who lacked
the formal qualifications for the task had to be licensed to preach. The
Cumberland Presbytery, immediately responsible for carrying on the
revival, took the latter way out of the dilemma, and was dissolved by
6723-1566723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
RELIGION 79
its synod. Appeal was made to the General Assembly of the Presby-
terian Church in 1809 without success, and as a result the Cumber-
land Presbyterian Church was formed as an independent denomination
in 1810. By 1829 it had grown so rapidly that it organized a general
assembly of its own with eighteen presbyteries.
Matters of doctrine offered an even more formidable stumbling block
and led, indirectly, to the formation of the Church of the Christian
Disciples (the Christian Church). Barton W. Stone, minister in
charge of two Presbyterian churches in Bourbon County, visited the
Logan County revival in 1801 and was so impressed that he decided
to organize a similar meeting of his own. Held at Cane Ridge in
August, it drew crowds variously estimated all the way from 10,000
to 25,000. Excitement and emotional fervor rose to a high pitch, and
the Cane Ridge meeting is commonly regarded as the peak of the
Great Revival. Stone and his followers (the Stonites) found it dif-
ficult to reconcile the part played by human reaction in salvation with
the Calvinistic emphasis on the doctrines of election and predestina-
tion, and this got them into trouble with the Presbyterian Synod of
Kentucky. Suspended in 1803, they first formed the independent
Springfield Presbytery, but almost immediately threw over the back-
ground of allegiance to the parent denomination and adopted the
simple name "Christian."
The Baptists, unlike the Presbyterians, took full advantage of the
Great Revival to add to their ranks. In the three years, from 1800
to 1803, they enrolled 10,000 members, and by 1820 had more mem-
bers than all other denominations combined. But trouble was brew-
ing. Thomas Campbell and his son Alexander, originally Presby-
terians, 'had joined the Baptists when, differences of doctrine forced
them out of the Presbyterian fold in 1813. They became an influential
force among the Baptists of Kentucky and by 1830 had drawn as
many as 10,000 adherents away from the Baptist ranks. Their fol-
lowers (the Campbellites) held the Armenian views and sought to
promote a simple evangelical Christianity. In 1832 two men repre-
senting the Stonites and the Campbellites were sent through Kentucky
to bring these two groups together. They were largely successful and
effected a union resulting in the organization of the Christian Church
—which may be regarded as a sect formed of members of the Presby-
terian and the Baptist Churches.
Methodism was peculiarly open to the influence of the Great Re-
6723-1576723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
So KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
vival. Its numbers grew rapidly and it prospered; not until later did
it, too, suffer dissensions and divisions.
The Catholics were untouched by the revival, but were perhaps
affected by the general awakening of interest in religion. The first
diocese, which originally included Tennessee and all the Northwest
Territory, was organized at Bardstown in 1808. The first bishop,
Benedict Joseph Flaget, had his residence in a log cabin (still pre-
served) at St. Thomas, near Bardstown, and began building the first
cathedral west of the mountains at Bardstown in 1819. It was not
until 1841 that the see was transferred to Louisville.
The Shakers, though they did not come directly under the influence
of the revival, were drawn to Kentucky by it. Organized as an off-
shoot of Quakerism in England, the Shaker Society had been brought
to America in 1775 by "Mother Ann" Lee, and was first centered in
New York. Its members believed in strict and simple living, in
prophecy, and direct spiritual guidance. Thus they were attracted by
reports of the revival, and thought, probably, that Kentucky would
offer congenial soil for Shaker beliefs and practices. For a time the
Shakers prospered in their new home, and had two establishments of
which one, known as Shakertown or Pleasant Hill, is still well pre-
served. By about 1850, however, the society began to decline.
Shakerism in Kentucky is of historic interest but it is not part of the
present-day picture. There are still a few Shakers in America, but
none are left in the State.
What may be considered the third period in Kentucky's religious
history reached its climax during the War between the States. It saw
divisions over the slavery issue within the major denominations, and
reflected the trend of secular events which so bitterly divided the
Nation.
The Presbyterians, already disorganized by the revival, were further
divided in 1837 by a general schism of the Presbyterian Church over
doctrinal matters into Old School and New School Presbyterians. The
latter organization was confined largely to the North and became out-
spokenly antislavery. But there were enough Southern members, in-
cluding the Kentucky Presbytery of Lexington, to cause these to with-
draw in 1857 to form the United Synod of the South, with six synods,
twenty-one presbyteries, and about 15,000 members. In 1864 the
United Synod of the South joined the Presbyterian Church of the Con-
federate States (which had split off from the Old School Church in
1861) to form the Presbyterian Church in the United States, now pop-
ularly known as the Southern Presbyterian Church. Since Kentucky
6723-1586723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
RELIGION 8l
was a border State, the war divided the Presbyterians cruelly, and
created chaos in their ranks. The Southern churches cut themselves
off completely from Northern affiliations, and this wound has not yet
been entirely healed.
The Baptists and Methodists also split on the slavery question. As
early as 1844 the Baptist associations of the South, including those
in Kentucky, withdrew from the triennial convention to form their own
organization, the Southern Baptist Convention. In the same year the
Methodists decided on an amicable separation, and the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South (Southern Methodist Church) was organized
in Louisville in May 1845. Of its 460,000 members in 1846—in the
entire South—125,000 were Negro. But by 1860 there remained
fewer than 50,000 Negroes, and ten years later these withdrew to form
the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church.
With the slavery issue settled and the War between the States be-
hind them, the denominations which split on these national issues have
shown a growing tendency, not yet altogether successful, to mend the
schisms of that period. A gradual development of tolerance, and of
social and philanthropic activities, mark the fourth (or present) period
of Kentucky's religious history.
The picture of religious life today may be drawn briefly. There
are, all told, more than 7,000 churches in the State. Though only
about 16 percent are urban, these claim approximately 40 percent of
the entire church membership. More than 50 percent of all Negroes in
Kentucky are church members; the Baptist group—numbering 90,000
—is larger than all other Negro church groups combined.
The Baptists, as stated above, are the largest single religious group.
They are found in every county except those of the extreme north-
eastern section. In many counties they constitute half (or more) of
the church membership, and are especially strong along the southern
border and in the southeastern section. The Southern Baptist Con-
vention has as yet shown no inclination to reunite with other Baptist
groups, possibly because of the fundamentalist issue.
Catholic church membership is unevenly distributed. Thirty-four
counties in the southwest and along the southern and eastern borders
report no Catholics, while 115,000 of the total 180,000 are in Jeffer-
son, Campbell, Nelson, and Kenton Counties.
Of all the denominations divided by the slavery issue, the Method-
ists have shown the strongest tendency toward reconciliation with
the Northern Conference. In 1925 a plan for the organic reunion of
the Methodist Episcopal Church and the Methodist Episcopal Church,
6723-1596723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
82 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
South failed by a narrow margin of the combined votes of lay and
ministerial members of the Southern Church, while the vote in the
Methodist Episcopal Church itself was overwhelmingly in favor of
union. In April 1938, at a meeting of the general conference in Birm-
ingham, Alabama, a plan of union was adopted by a majority of 334
affirmative votes to 26 opposing votes. The plan provided for a unit-
ing conference to be held on April 26, 1939, for the purpose of har-
monizing and combining provisions now existing in the disciplines of the
uniting churches. At a conference held in Kansas City, Missouri, in
June 1939, the three branches of Methodism were united under the
name "The Methodist Church."
The Presbyterians are still divided into the Presbyterian Church in
the United States with 22,000 members; the Presbyterian Church in
the United States of America, with 16,000 members; the Cumberland
Presbyterians with 11,600 members; and the Colored Cumberland
Presbyterians and the United Presbyterians with 1,370 members.
There are, however, many indications of effort to unite northern and
southern elements.
The Protestant Episcopal Church is comparatively small. More
than half of its 13,000 members are in Jefferson and Breckinridge
Counties and 75 of the 120 counties report no members. Jewish con-
gregations are likewise small. Of the 15,500 Jews in the State, 12,500
are concentrated in Louisville.
Camp meetings, revivals, baptisms, and other outdoor religious
gatherings, which formerly were an important factor in the religious
life of the State, have almost entirely disappeared except in the Ken-
tucky highlands. Here customs change slowly, and, even with better
roads and churches, these activities are still conducted with great
fervor. One of the oldest institutions of its kind in the Southern
Methodist Church is the Kavanaugh Camp Meeting near Crestwood,
18 miles from Louisville. Founded more than 60 years ago by Bishop
EL H. Kavanaugh, the meeting has been held here annually except
for a short period when the camp was closed. Before there were any
buildings on the grounds everything was of a primitive nature. Benches
were built in a grove of oak and beech trees; tents were used to lodge
those who wished to remain for the entire meeting. Later a pavilion, a
dining hall, dormitories, and about twenty cottages were added. Today
the camp is equipped with modern conveniences. Speakers of na-
tional prominence deliver addresses at the meetings, which are inter-
denominational .
6723-1606723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
EDUCATION
PIONEER Kentuckians were often unlettered, according to the
standards of formal education, but they respected learning. Wher-
ever stockades were erected, cabins within them were set apart as
schools in which the more literate members of the community taught
the "three R's," often from memory.
In 1775, before the first church and the first court of justice were
established, the first school was opened in the fort at Harrodsburg.
The teacher, Mrs. William Coomes, taught the beginners to read and
write from paddle-shaped pine shingles inscribed with the alphabet,
and from Bible texts. At McAfee's Station, near Harrodsburg, there
was a school in 1777. John McKinney taught at Lexington "between
fights" with wildcats and Indians. At Boonesboro, at Logan's Station
—wherever a cluster of cabins appeared—schools were established,
presided over by teachers who sometimes knew little more than their
pupils. With low pay, often in tobacco—which was legal tender—
bear bacon, buffalo steak, or jerked venison, these pioneer teachers
eked out a precarious existence.
The schoolhouse was a cheerless log hut, lighted through oiled paper
stretched over an opening that served for a window. Books were
few, but there was always the Bible, supplemented by hand-written
texts.
Numerous private schools were established between 1780 and 1800.
At Lexington, John Filson, Kentucky's first historian, conducted a
private academy until his death in 1788; Elijah Craig, a pioneer Bap-
tist minister, established a school for his congregation at Georgetown;
and Salem Academy at Bardstown, under John Priestly, became one
of the leading schools in the State. Schools at this time were primarily
for boys, who were taught arithmetic, surveying, geometry, bookkeep-
ing, a smattering of English grammar, and a little Latin—if they were
destined for the law or medicine. The private schools opened by the
French immigrants offered languages, music, deportment, and "fancy"
dancing.
83
6723-1616723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
84 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
There were also "female" academies, which corresponded to finish-
ing schools and specialized in such subjects as "ornamental" literature,
poetry, and fancy and practical needlework, in addition to reading,
writing, and grammar. Girls were considered cultured if they were
accomplished dancers, and could make samplers and speak a little
French.
Early efforts at elementary education were definitely individualistic,
and followed the motto that governed Indian fighting: "Every man
to his man, and every man to his tree." The first constitution, adopted
in 1792, made no mention of education. On the other hand, higher
education was recognized as the responsibility of the State soon after
the Revolution. In 1783 the Virginia Legislature set aside confiscated
Tory land in the County of Kentucky "for a public school or seminary
of learning." As a result, Transylvania Seminary, later to become the
first university west of the Alleghenies, was opened as a grammar
school at Crow's Station, afterward Danville, in the double log cabin
of "Father" David Rice. He was the school's first teacher at a salary
of three pounds sterling a year—one-half to be in cash and the rest in
corn, tobacco, and pork. In 1788 the seminary was moved to Lexing-
ton, which was at that time the most important frontier settlement of
the West. Transylvania later developed and prospered sufficiently to
make Lexington the literary capital of the region. A large majority
of the influential men in the early history of Kentucky and the West
are related to this institution in one way or another.
In 1788 there came the first suggestion, from an anonymous Lexing-
ton correspondent, that a public school system should be established.
The system proposed the division of counties into districts, in each
of which a public school was to be located. The opposition of the
private academies, however, prevented the materialization of the plan.
At Georgetown and Bardstown, and in Mercer and Madison Counties,
new private schools were opened.
In 1794 Kentucky Academy, the first public school authorized and
incorporated by the Kentucky Legislature, was established through a
State endowment of 6,000 acres of land at Pisgah, near Lexington.
George Washington and John Adams each contributed $100 to this in-
stitution. Bethel Academy, the first Methodist institution of learning
in the Mississippi Valley, opened in Jessamine County in 1798. The
precedent set by the Methodists was quickly followed by other de-
nominations. The legislature then provided endowments of 6,000 acres
of land to each county in the State for the purpose of establishing
6723-1626723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
EDUCATION 85
seminaries that were somewhat more restricted in educational scope
than colleges. In order to raise $1,000 with which to meet preliminary
expenses, each county was allowed to operate lotteries.
Notwithstanding the development in higher education, common
school instruction still followed the pioneer principle that education
should be diffused downward from college to the masses. By the end
of the second decade of the nineteenth century, fifty-nine county
academies, favored by generous legislatures, were chartered. The
majority of Kentuckians, however, failed to give adequate financial
support to the State-endowed county academies, and by the outbreak
of the War between the States, only one of them was left.
The period 1820-1850 was one of extremes in the development of
education. Incompetent trustees of academy endowments frittered
away assets; visionary legislatures set up educational funds, only to
raid them for any emergency which arose; forward-looking men wagged
an admonishing finger at those in places of responsibility; Governors
addressed legislatures, and the press at times vigorously argued in be-
half of the uneducated masses. Meanwhile, religious denominations
were establishing or getting control of colleges, seminaries, and acad-
emies throughout the State; but this contributed little if anything to
elementary education.
The general educational level in 1830 was revealed in a school re-
port from 78 out of 83 counties. Of a total of almost 140,000 children
in the State between the ages of five and fifteen years, only 31,834
were attending school. In the county with the best record only one-
half of the children were at school.
The State's leaders, concerned over the situation, organized the
Kentucky Educational Society in the early 18307s to arouse public
sentiment. Realization of the need for education spread, and when
the Federal Government adopted the policy of distributing surplus
land revenues among the States in 1836, education shared in Ken-
tucky's $2,000,000 windfall. A fund of $850,000 was set aside to
found and sustain a general program of public education. A law,
sponsored by Judge W. F. Bullock, of Louisville, was passed by the
legislature on February 16, 1838, establishing the first public school
system. The income from the fund was to be distributed among the
counties according to the number of children of school age, and school
districts were empowered to tax citizens to an amount equal to the sum
received from the State. The system also provided for a State board of
education, division of the State into districts containing 30 to 50 chil-
6723-1636723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
86 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
dren, appointment of five commissioners of education for each county
and five trustees for each district.
The cause of general education was retarded by the fact that the
prosperous patronized private schools and the poor were indifferent.
Agitation continued. One writer suggested that not only should the
poor be educated, but poor parents who needed the labor of their
children should be compensated for the time their children spent in
school.
By 1840, two years after the public school system had come into
existence, the first real public school census was made. Only 32,920
children were reported in school, while the school-age population had
increased by more than 40,000. There were 42,000 persons over 20
years of age in the State who were unable to read. Counties with as
many as 2,000 children of school age reported none in school attend-
ance, while the best records again showed only one-half the children
in school. Still the legislature and elected officials bickered over school
funds and policies.
In 1847, when Robert J. Breckinridge became superintendent of
education, tfie situation changed. Due to his efforts the new constitu-
tion, adopted in 1849, contained a clause protecting educational funds.
By 1853 the common-school law was in operation in every county of
the State, even though first-class teachers could not always be obtained
with the funds available.
Then came the War between the States, and much of the ground
gained was lost.
In 1869 there were 4,447 schools with 169,477 children in attendance
out of a total of 376,868 of school age. Nine years later there were
still 226,323 children out of school. In 1883 more than 250,000 peo-
ple—15 percent of the Commonwealth's population—could not read.
But it must be remembered that Negroes had not been classed as
citizens until after the emancipation of slaves; that Negroes almost
without exception had no schooling during slave days and that ade-
quate school facilities for Negroes did not exist for many years there-
after. With this great group of illiterate children added to the popula-
tion it appeared that the list of illiterate citizens in the State had
grown alarmingly when such was not the case.
Increasing funds went into common-school education and the citizens
fought illiteracy under such slogans as "We Want a Pen in Every
Hand in Kentucky." At one time as many as 100,000 illiterates were
being instructed by volunteer teachers.
6723-1646723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--6723-1656723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--6723-1666723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
OLD CENTRE, CENTRE COLLEGE, DANVILLE
6723-1676723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
MOUNTAIN SCHOOL OF NATURAL STONE, A WPA PROJECT
BEREA COLLEGE, BEREA
6723-1686723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
KENTUCKY SCHOOL FOR THE DEAF, DANVILLE
THE UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY, AIRVII
6723-1696723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
TRAPPIST MONASTERY, GETHSEMANE
AUDUBON MUSEUM, HENDERSO
6723-1706723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
GIDDINGS HALL, GEORGETOWN COLLEGE
6723-1716723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
GUEST HOUSE, SHAKERTOWN
DOORWAY TO GUEST HOUSE, SHAKERTOWN
6723-1726723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
HAKER CEREMONIES
SHAKER CEREMONIJ
6723-1736723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
ST. JOSEPH'S CHURCH, BARDSTOWN
MUD MEETING HOUSE (c. 1806), NEAR HARRODSBUR'
6723-1746723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
EDUCATION 87
Kentucky's educational system received its most progressive boost
in the "Educational Legislature" of 1908 and 1909. Funds were in-
creased for the support of schools, and State and county funds were
combined and distributed on a basis which equalized opportunities for
each county. From 1908 to 1936 important changes were made in
the whole school system: the school laws were clarified and placed in a
single codification in 1934; the Council of Higher Education was or-
ganized; the University of Kentucky was made head of the educa-
tional system and given responsibility for graduate training; the other
State colleges were entrusted with the responsibility of teacher training
and undergraduate work in general. Today (1939) Kentucky has the
lowest rate of illiteracy of any of the southern States, and State sup-
port to its public schools compares favorably with that of the Nation.
Keeping pace with the development of common-school education,
facilities for higher education have also progressed. The University
of Louisville, the oldest public institution of higher learning in the
State, was founded by the city council in 1837. A branch of the uni-
versity, the Louisville Municipal College for Negroes, offers a regular
four-year college course. The Kentucky State Industrial College is the
only other State-supported institution of higher learning for Negroes
in the State.
The University of Kentucky was founded as the Agricultural and
Mechanical College in 1866, under provisions of the Congressional
Morrill Land-Grant Act. It opened with an enrollment of 190 stu-
dents. The present resident enrollment is 3,825, not counting students
in correspondence and extension courses.
There are four State teachers colleges, at Richmond, Moorehead,
Murray, and Bowling Green. Among the privately endowed institu-
tions are Transylvania, Centre, Asbury, Union, Georgetown, Win-
chester, Kentucky Wesleyan, and Berea. Most of the fifteen junior
colleges in the State are supported by religious denominations.
Not until 1911 was a concentrated effort made to establish a pro-
gram of adult education. In that year Mrs. Cora Wilson Stewart
founded the "moonlight schools" in which adults were taught to read
and write. Her project led to the appointment of Governor Mc-
Creary's "illiteracy commission" in 1920.
The public school system is now supported by State appropriations
amounting to approximately $11.65 per capita, in addition to county
appropriations and funds derived from taxes on public properties for
schools. Approximately 655,186 Kentucky children, or 86 percent of
6723-1756723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
88 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
those between the ages of six and eighteen years, were enrolled in
public and private schools in the school year 1934-1935. In 1935
there were 848 high schools in the State, 773 for white children and
75 for Negroes.
In co-operation with the Works Progress Administration and the
Public Works Administration, modern school buildings have been con-
structed and old buildings have been improved in practically every
county in the State. The adult educational program of the Works
Progress Administration has done much to solve the problem of il-
literacy.
6723-1766723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
FOLKLORE AND FOLK
MUSIC
CONVENIENT and pithy term for the mountain people of
Kentucky, "our contemporary ancestors," does not indicate the
origin of the customs, beliefs, and peculiarities which persist among
them. For they too had ancestors. These were, for the most part,
British, and of the soil. Just as today many a mountaineer has never
been ten miles from his birthplace, so also his forebears remained at
home. They were sturdy men and women, steeped in traditional ways,
independent and as little humble as possible. The mountaineer is that
way too. He cares neither for ease nor for soft living. He is hospita-
ble. "Welcome, stranger, light and hitch," is the salutation, and the
stranger is bidden to take "d—n near all" of whatever the table offers.
A hunter by race, he is first of all a poacher, in arms against such as
would deny him the right to take game where he may find it, a trait
dating back to the time of Robin Hood in England. His speech is remi-
niscent of this older land and people. Labeled as "a survival," the
mountaineer in reality is on the defensive, protecting himself against
later comers and strange ideas. "I wouldn't choose to crave this new-
fangled teachin' and preachin'," he says. "All I ask is to be let alone.
I was doin? middlin' well. The hull kit and bilin7 can go to the devil."
Mountain dialect reflects the Anglo-Saxon origin of the mountain
people; obsolete forms found in Shakespeare and the King James
version of the Bible are in common use. "Clumb," "writ," and "et"
for climbed, wrote, and ate are sound enough if you go back a few
centuries. "Buss" for kiss, "pack" for carry, and "poke" for pocket-
bag and the like are pure Elizabethan.
Shakespeare said "a-feared," as does the mountaineer today, and
"beholden" is common to both. "His schoolin3 holp him mighty/' says
the proud mountain father; King Richard of England said, "Let him
thank me that holp to send him thither." "Hit's right pied," shouts
the mountain boy when the snake he has stoned puffs up and mottles.
89
6723-1776723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
go KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
But he probably never read of "meadows trim with daisies pied/' or
heard of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. When he sings, the mountaineer
"rolls a song," and his expression, "he looks like the hind wheels of
bad luck," is so expressive that only the carping student would seek to
trace its heritage.
Folklore is found not only among the mountaineers but in every
county in the State, in town and in city. In the mountains, however,
because of close-knit family and community ties, it is part of everyday
life. Songs and sayings are more than quaint and queer; they have
living reality. How much of the folklore is Scotch or Welsh, English
or Irish, cannot readily be known.
The sense of something evil pervades mountain superstition; the
devil is a personage, as real as he is malicious, as easily foiled as in
Faust. The formula is common, and Satan is sent packing as surely
by the sacred words "in the name of the Father and the Son and the
Holy Ghost3' as, in European story, by the sign of the Cross. Stories
of people seeing the devil are accepted, and such an experience might
almost be described as normal. It does not appear that belief in the
"little people," so widespread in Ireland, was carried to Kentucky;
few cases of children being "fairy-struck" exist. There is bedevilment
rather than enchantment.
Hard by the headwaters of Hell-fer-Sartain is the Devil's Jump, a
small branch, its course cluttered throughout by a confused mass of
boulders and rocks. Here the devil, skipping in haste from hilltop
to hilltop, his apron loaded with rocks with which he proposed to
burden the land, "busted" his apron string and dropped the cargo into
the stream below. To the present day an unusual scattering of rocks
will be met with the exclamation: "The Devil must have broken his
apron string hereabouts."
Leslie County has the usual legend, based on a common Old World
theme, of a wager for the soul of a human being. The devil chal-
lenged a gunsmith to a shooting match with the soul of the craftsman
as prize. Singularly enough, the gunsmith won. He had the scare
of his life, however, and never after could he be persuaded to return
to his bench and fashion fine guns.
Among these people, who are not of the twentieth century, nor want
to be, strange things are everyday happenings, and witchcraft is taken
as a matter of course. Witches, however, are quite another story;
they no longer belong. But they are feared just the same. From
6723-1786723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
FOLKLORE AND FOLK MUSIC QI
ante bellum days come superstitions given to white children by their
Negro mammies. This is the origin of the wholesome dread of "hoo-
doo" or "voodoo" signs.
Weather signs are deferred to and planting determined by the phases
of the moon. If you don't hang a bread-sifter on the doorknob at
night, you'll find witches in the bread in the morning. "If it comes,
it no comes; if it no comes, it comes" means that if the crow comes
the corn will not grow; if the crow doesn't come, the corn will. Along
the Upper Middle Fork of the Kentucky River every hamlet and
county seat has its ancient teller of tales, grateful for a good listener.
Old World backgrounds and traits of Kentucky's pioneers are reflected
in the tunes and songs handed down from generation to generation—
historical and sentimental ballads reminiscent of a time long past.
"Queen Jane" tells how Henry VIII followed Jane Seymour to the
grave: "Six went before, four carried her along. King Henry fol-
lowed with his black mourning on." Dating back to the fifteenth
century mysteries is the "Cherry Tree Carol/' built around the story
of Joseph and Mary in the Apocrypha. This song was discovered
by Josephine McGill of Louisville, one of the first to collect and har-
monize songs in this particular field. "Lord Randal" tells the story
of the poisoned lover, a universal theme; the "Maid and the Gallows
Tree" brings in the ransom motif; while "Barbara Allen," "Lord
Thomas," "Fair Annet," "Sweet William," and "Lord Lovel" lament
the girl who loved and died.
There is a more contemporary, defiant note to the well-known lines:
Way up on Clinch Mountain I wander along;
I'm as drunk as the devil—
Oh, let me alone.
A variant is more plaintive:
Go away, old man, and leave me alone,
For I am a stranger
And a long ways from home.
With a Miles Standish touch, another ballad tells of a young fellow
in love who, going to sea, leaves a friend to kiss his sweetheart good-by.
Eventually he returns to find friend and sweetheart married:
Jack, you selfish elf,
The very next girl I learn to love,
I'll kiss her for myself.
6723-1796723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
92 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
A distinctive type of song was characteristic of the camp meetings,
the literary form resembling the popular ballad or song. "Old-Time
Religion"—of indefinite length—and "The Old Ship of Zion" are
typical camp meeting songs, sung by both white people and Negroes
in Kentucky.
One of the earliest of Kentucky's social and educational activities
was the singing school. No place was too remote for the singing class
that met in the church or schoolhouse. The songs were always re-
ligious and were usually found in a book for sale by the teacher. Two
of the earliest singing schoolbooks were the Kentucky Harmony, in
use by 1816, and Supplement to Kentucky Harmony, published in 1820.
Both were written in four-shape notation and compiled by Ananias
Davisson, a singing-school teacher, born somewhere on the border line
of Maryland and Virginia; they contained a large number of songs
popular in the rural South. The first fifteen pages of Kentucky
Harmony were devoted to Preface, Rudiments, General Observation,
"A Remark or Two at the request of several Refined Musicians,"
"Lessons for Tuning the Voice," and directions for the construction
of a metronome. The 144 pages of tunes were all in four-part har-
mony. Part I contains "plain and easy tunes commonly used in time
of divine worship"; Part II, "more lengthy and elegant pieces," used
in "singing schools and private societies."
The Kentucky Harmonist, published about 1817, was compiled by
Samuel Lytler Metcalf (1798-1856) whose home was Shelbyville, Ken-
tucky. He began teaching singing school when a mere boy, and the
proceeds of several editions of the Kentucky Harmonist enabled him
to complete his medical education.
In 1835 appeared the first edition of Southern Harmony, written
and published by "Singin' Billy" Walker—perhaps the most widely
known of the shape-note song books and still used at "Benton's Big
Singing." The last of its many editions, which appeared in 1854, has
recently been reproduced in facsimile.
Kentucky Negro spirituals resemble those of other Southern States,
but nearly every section has its own slight variations of the same songs
as well as actual new ones. So characteristic are the Negro's own
harmonic arrangements and words, that his songs may be considered
native folk music. His ability to convey emotion in a few powerful,
one-syllable words is unparalleled. Beautiful, simple, and generally
plaintive, the spirituals are the unique expression of the Negro's ex-
6723-1806723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
FOLKLORE AND FOLK MUSIC 93
perience, and a distinct contribution to the development of Kentucky
music.
Another type of Kentucky song is known as a play-party game.
Singing is unaccompanied; clapping of hands and stamping or patting
of feet are often added. Such games as "Chase (or Shoot) the Buf-
falo," "Skip to My Lou/7 "Pig in the Parlor," and "Over the River
to Charley" are good examples. These folk games have died out of
general usage in Kentucky, but have been revived at school, community
gatherings, and camps.
Breakdowns, or dance tunes, are known everywhere. There are two
kinds, sung and instrumental. The former is often the same as the
play-party game, except that it is used as a square dance. The second
type of breakdown calls for a fiddler, usually with the accompaniment
of a banjo picker or guitarist. The string band, now known to the
radio as a "Hillbilly" band, is made up of a variety of instruments:
fiddle, banjo, guitar, bass viol, mandolin, accordion, castanets, or any
available musical contrivance. Old songs and ballads are sung regu-
larly by students at Berea College, Hindman Settlement School, Pine
Mountain Settlement School, and elsewhere. Several public events in
the State are held annually with the primary object of preserving Ken-
tucky's folk music. Among these is the American Folk Song Festival,
sponsored by the American Folk Song Society, founded by Jean
Thomas of Ashland. On the second Sunday of June of each year, in
front of the "Traipsin' Woman's" cabin in a picturesque hollow of the
foothills of Kentucky, mountain people gather to present a program
of primitive songs and dances. The annual singing convention at
Benton, Marshall County, held on the fourth Sunday of May, recently
celebrated its fifty-fourth meeting. Kentucky folk music is now reach-
ing an audience outside of the State, through the radio and activities
of musicians such as John Jacob Niles, who gives concerts and lecture
recitals in Europe as well as America.
6723-1816723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
KENTUCKY THOROUGH-
BREDS
TV7THEN Daniel Boone in 1775 brought to the Virginia Legislature
Y^ a resolution to improve the breed of horses over in Kentucky
County, he was voicing a determination that has persisted in the Blue-
grass. And the Bluegrass has made Kentucky celebrated throughout
the world for its fine horses.
The resolve alone would not have been enough, however, if the
Bluegrass did not have a mild climate and 1,200 square miles of
cherished land around Lexington peculiarly fitted to be the nursery
of thoroughbreds. The long, easy roll of the land, with its firm, dry
turf undisturbed by plows and harrows, with its pools of water and its
clumps of open woods, seems to please the eyes and feet of both
horses and men. Underneath this Bluegrass turf is a layer of rare
Ordovician limestone, a shell deposit laid down millions of years ago
when the region was an ocean floor. This limestone gives to the water
and grass a high phosphorus and calcium content which builds light,
solid bones, elastic muscles, and strong tendons in the horses that feed
and drink here. Under these ideal conditions are developed the prime
requisites of the Thoroughbred—strength and fleetness. As a result,
Kentucky-bred horses make up one-half of the winners on first-class
American tracks, and a large majority of Derby firsts.
Kentucky has always been interested in horse racing and horse
breeding. The first settlers in the Bluegrass were men from Virginia
and the Carolinas, who brought with them over the mountains and
down the rivers on flatboats strong, fast horses, tended affectionately
and with care. As early as 1788, six months after the first edition of
the Kentucky Gazette was printed, there appeared the first Kentucky
stallion advertisements. One of them reads, in part:
The famous horse Pilgarlic, of a beautiful colour, full fourteen hands three
inches high, rising ten years old, will stand the ensuing season on the head of Salt
94
6723-1826723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
KENTUCKY THOROUGHBREDS 95
River at Captain Abe Irvins, Mercer County, and will cover mares at the very
low price of ten shillings a leap, if the money is paid down, or fifteen at the expira-
tion of the season; and twenty shillings the season in cash, or thirty shillings in
good trade. . . .
None of these first stallions was good enough to improve the breed;
but after about fifty years of importing sires and brood mares, Ken-
tucky began to produce great Thoroughbreds.
The first Thoroughbreds were English products. In England the
strong, heavy Norman horses that had carried armored knights into
battle were relegated by changing times to the fields, and the qualities
of the light, fleet animals from the East were sought. Three great
Eastern sires were imported into England—the Byerly Turk about
1685, Barley's Arabian in 1704, and the Godolphin Arabian in 1730.
Crossed with native mares, they produced the English Thoroughbred,
a peerless runner. In England the Thoroughbred was improved until
there were the three great stallions, Herod (1758), Eclipse (1764),
and Matchem (1748), who established the three dominant male lines
to which all Thoroughbreds belong.
America imported its first thoroughbred, Bull Rock, son of the
Byerly Turk and grandson of the Arabian, in 1730. Within the next
thirty years Virginia and the Carolinas had excellent Thoroughbred
stock. Messenger was brought to America in 1768, and Diomed,
winner of the first English Derby, in 1799. Messenger was crossed
with American Thoroughbreds and native mares to produce the stand-
ard-bred, or light-harness horses—trotters and pacers which, like the
Thoroughbred, found their best home in the Bluegrass. The third of
the light breeds for which the State became renowned is the American
Saddle Horse, which developed after Denmark (an American thorough-
bred foaled in 1839) was crossed with standard-breds and thorough-
breds. This breed, known for beauty, intelligence, and show qualities,
is Kentucky's own.
During the War between the States Kentucky horses were demanded
by both factions. Owners subsequently found their stables empty, and
interest in breeding at a low ebb. Since it was costly to ship horses
East and South for big money, Colonel Lewis Clark was sent to Eng-
land to study breeding methods and to investigate the Derby, Eng-
land's great sporting event. The result was the first Kentucky Derby,
held at Louisville in 1875. Aristides galloped home for a purse of
$2,850. The mile-and-a-half event (now a mile-and-a-quarter) was
worthy of the Kentucky product. Succeeding Derbies focused attention
6723-1836723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
96 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
on the State, and several wealthy Eastern owners, Milton Sanford and
August Belmont among others, bought large estates and moved their
stables to the Bluegrass where some of the best-known sires in America
—Man oj War, The Porter, Sir Galahad III, Blue Larkspur, and many
others—are spending their last days in the velvet. Every year about
15,000 people follow the arrow from Lexington to pay their respects
to "Big Red," as Man o' War is affectionately called. Though insured
for half a million, and guarded day and night, he likes nothing so much
as retrieving a hat thrown across the paddock. His 25-foot strides
soon discouraged competition and he was retired early. He once was
clocked at 43 miles an hour during a workout, and his size and strength
were such that he seemed never to tire. "Chicago" O'Brien, one of the
greatest of plungers, once bet $100,000 on him to win $1,000.
Smasher of five world records, his "get," including War Admiral, Cru-
sader, Mars, American Flag, Edith Cavell, and Scapa Flow, are near-
ing the two-and-a-half million mark in winnings on the American turf.
From the Bluegrass have come many of the great moneymakers of
the track, among them Equipoise (d. 1938), the third highest stake
winner in America, who earned $338,000; Gallant Fox, who took
purses of more than $328,000; and Seabiscuit, who in 1938 passed
the $340,000 mark.
The horse farms range in size from less than a hundred to two or
three thousand acres. Many of the larger ones are financed by in-
dustrial fortunes. Despite spectacular individual earnings, such es-
tablishments rarely enrich their owners. Ten thousand dollars is a
fair price for a yearling colt of distinguished parentage, and two thou-
sand more each year will keep him in the pink; but even if he shows
the stuff Derby winners are made of, he may never return his invest-
ment. The hazards of disease, injury, lack of speed, and tempera-
mental obstacles, all unite to keep Thoroughbred breeding a sporting
proposition.
A visitor in the Bluegrass sees stone walls and white plank fences
rising and falling on an ocean of dark rich green to enclose paddocks
and fields and formally beautiful homes, immaculate barns and Negro
cabins as precisely arranged as in a blueprint. Great elms, and maples
—trees that sheltered early settlers as they made their way across the
Great Meadow—interrupt the endless flow of green pasture. An in-
genious device on the gates makes it possible to open them from an
automobile. The driver, if he is lucky, may be asked by a grinning
stable boy to wait a few moments; then he sees a group of colts
6723-1846723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
KENTUCKY THOROUGHBREDS 97
coming over a hill on their spindly legs. Prancing along, they are
ushered gently on to a felt carpet that has been laid across the hard
rock. "Horses first!" is the primary rule on the horse farm.
The larger stables maintain a Tack Room, which is decorated with
ribbons and silver cups and may have a bar. The Tack Room
actually is designed to contain halters, stirrups, spurs, reins, and other
horse equipment.
The story is told of a man who, seeing one of the thoroughbred
stables for the first time, suddenly removed his hat and said in awed
tones, "My Lord! The cathedral of the horse." The varnished stalls
with polished metal trim and the tanbark aisles without a wisp of
fallen hay are as neat as the cabin of a steamship. A stable boy leads
out his royal charge. His attitude is that of a colored mammy toward
the "white chile" in her care. He croons and chuckles, argues and
cajoles, but never uses a whip. It is generally conceded that the horse
"knows more than a pin-headed boy." Yet the stable boys and exer-
cise boys have been carefully selected for their tact, skill, and disposi-
tion. Usually one man to every three horses is employed in the rac-
ing stables and one to ten on the breeding farms. There may be ex-
ercise boys, grooms who rub down the satin coats, jockeys, foremen,
blacksmiths, veterinarians, bookkeepers and cooks, as well as a man-
ager and trainer.
Methods of training and stable routine vary, but precision is the
keynote of all stables. Colonel E. R. Bradley, of Idle Hour Farm,
has a record sheet posted on the door of each stall where twice daily
the horse's temperature, the amount of food he has eaten, and other
facts of his behavior are recorded. The record is discussed with the
veterinarian each night.
During the spring about 70 per cent of the brood mares on a farm
will foal. Each receives the care of a maternity ward patient, for
nothing must go wrong with the Thoroughbred baby. He spends his
first summer in carefree fashion near his mother, and very soon his
slender legs have grown sure and he loves to run. His feet are
trimmed and watched for the slightest injury. He has been weaned
at about S to 6 months, and is now becoming accustomed to a diet con-
sisting mainly of crushed oats, with corn, bran, salt, and flaxseed in
judicious quantities. Doses of cod-liver oil give him resistance to colds
and help to build up his strength.
His first lessons begin early; he is broken to the halter when a few
weeks old; as a yearling, about July, he learns the feel of bit, bridle,
6723-1856723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
9& KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
and halter shank. Slowly he becomes accustomed to the tack he
must carry as a race horse. When he can be led around the stall thus
equipped., he is ready for the paddock, where he learns to obey the
commands of his rider.
New Vear's Day is always his first birthday, though he may be
actually only seven or eight months old. He .may make his exciting
debut an_y time after his second birthday. Since he is born to race,
lie may instinctively know the procedure. At first the boy lets him
go along easily and observes his reactions to the track. By this time
It is known whether the colt is calm or nervous, high-spirited or digni-
fied, stubborn or tractable.
On a cool autumn day the yearling goes to work. For a few weeks
he walks., trots, and canters up to as much as three and a half miles a
day. He gets a few speed trials, generally at one-quarter mile. After
bis trials, he is let down until February 1, unless he is going to winter
racing.
If the Thoroughbred comes from a long line of sprinters, he will
probably- never be nominated for the Derby, but he has plenty of op-
portunities at distances shorter than that famous mile-and-a-quarter.
By his second winter, perhaps the most important molding period, he
has usually given some indication of his racing possibilities. Some-
times he is three before all these things are determined. His speed,
action, a,nd conformation (the extent to which he approaches the level
of excellence for his breed) do not always explain his performance;
authorities agree that there are traits bequeathed him in the con-
glomerate blood of his forebears. Awkward little colts are often pur-
chased on their pedigrees and on the expectation of development. The
training period usually places the Thoroughbred in the company he
shall keep; only a few are stars, but almost all take their places some-
where t>etween Belmont and the "leaky-roof" circuits. More and
more Thoroughbreds are seen in polo teams; some are sold for saddle
horses ox hunters. Before being placed at stud, regardless of his bril-
liant ancestry, a stallion has usually established his reputation on the
race trick, for his own capabilities should be proved to avoid per-
petuating any possible weakness in the line.
Some weeks before the seasonal' sales, the breeder selects the most
attractive colts and fillies for a regime of diet and grooming that will
enable fcliem to appear to the best advantage. Picking a great race
horse out of a string of yearlings is a gamble. Samuel Riddle paid
6723-1866723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
KENTUCKY THOROUGHBREDS 99
$5,000 for Man o' War because the youngster "had a look'7; today
he stands at stud for that amount.
The new owner is usually given the privilege of naming the colt—
which must be done before March 1 of his two-year-old year. This
is no simple matter. There can be no duplicates within a 15-year
period, and with approximately 5,000 foals registered annually in the
American Stud Book, ingenuity is taxed strenuously. Any number
of names may be submitted to the Jockey Club; the owner is notified
of the one allowed. Colts may be given names inspired by their an-
cestry, or associated with speed, courage, stamina, supremacy, luck,
heroism, or plain whimsy. When Colonel Bradley bought the colt
Bad News, he inquired why that name was attached to the animal.
Said the owner, "I've always heard that bad news travels fast." Brad-
ley had such good luck with his first two horses, Bad News and Bri-
gade, that he gave all the others "B" names. In the colorful history
of the Kentucky Derby he is the only owner who has taken four
Derby firsts. Many Kentuckians will bet on the Bradley entries as
a matter of course. Once a Negro admirer of the Colonel declared he
would name his expected baby for the Derby winner. After two
Bradley horses came down the track to take top honors, twin off-
spring in Louisville were promptly named Bubbling Over and Baggen-
baggage Jones.
The language of the horse barns is simple. The size of a horse is
measured in "hands"; a "hand" is four inches. An average horse of
the light breed stands between 15 and 16 hands, as measured at the
wither. A "foal" is a suckling colt or filly. "Filly" applies to a
female four-year-old or less; "colt" applies to a male of the same
years. A "maiden" is a race horse that has never placed first in a race.
The term "stud" applies to the entire plant of a horse-breeding farm—
land, buildings, and livestock. "Imp." before a horse's name means
that it is not American-born, but imported. Racing time is written
"1:34 2/5," and is read "one minute, thirty-four and two-fifths sec-
onds." Twenty years is considered a ripe old age, but many exceed
that term by years, and a few have been known to live into their
thirties.
Jargon of the track is extensive and baffling. A "high school horse"
wins when the odds are high; he is suspected of being able to read the
board. If a horse is "pitched up," he is running in better company
than usual. A jockey who "hand-rides" makes a rousing finish with-
out resorting to whip or spurs. A "grafter" is a pet kept in a racing
6723-1876723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
ioo KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
stable. A Kentucky horseman is called a "boot"; a "chalk eater" plays
favorites; a "throat-latcher" consistently finishes second and seldom
wins; a "tumble-bug" is a horse that likes to roll in his stall.
Kentucky owners, like all American Thoroughbred breeders, are
hoping for a repeal of the so-called Jersey Act, a rule set up in Eng-
land in 1913, which declared some American Thoroughbreds "half-
bred," Horses whose lineage cannot be traced in every line to horses
already in the British Stud Book fall into this category. Since the
blood of the illustrious Lexington (foaled in America) carries through
a great many American Thoroughbreds, it automatically outlaws the
strain. The rule was made to hamper our export trade with England
at a time when racing reached a low ebb in the United States and own-
ers were shipping their Thoroughbreds abroad. It has been suggested
that a committee of experts select certain superior American horses
and register them in the British Stud Book to redeem this country's
Thoroughbreds from unfair discrimination.
Producing a Derby winner is the dream of every thoroughbred owner
and trainer in Kentucky. When Colonel Bradley came to Kentucky
to raise horses, he was told that it would take 15 years to breed a
Derby winner; it took him just that long. The procedure starts sev-
eral years before the Derby "in the imagination of some sportsman
when he decides to match his knowledge of breeding and bloodlines
against that of other horsemen." Joseph E. Widener knows the haz-
ards that obstruct entrance into that exclusive society. In 1927 his
colt, Osmand, was thought unbeatable, but he lost to Whiskery by a
head. In 1935 one of his favorites, Chance Sun, broke down in train-
ing. In 1934 Peace Chance set a mile record before the Derby, but
finished far behind Cavalcade. In 1936 Brevity, widely accepted as
the favorite, lost to Bold Venture, a 20-1 shot.
The Derby is about the most popular sporting event in America.
Since Matt Winn took over the management of Churchill Downs in
1902, the Derby has become a national fiesta with an economic im-
portance that can hardly be estimated. In the dark spring of 1908
when Stonestreet and Sir Cleges seemed likely to languish in their
stalls because of a ban against illegal betting, Colonel Winn dug down
into the archives of Kentucky legislation and produced an old law
permitting pari-mutuel betting. The day was won; the system became
popular not only in Kentucky but also throughout the Nation. Winn
encouraged bookmakers to open a winter book, which gave the Derby
nationwide publicity. Land used for pasture rose in price—the value
6723-1886723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
KENTUCKY THOROUGHBREDS 101
per acre is three times that of the best Burley tobacco land—the
value of horses increased, and interest in breeding ran high. Winn's
dream of attracting brilliant three-year-olds from all parts of the
United States came true. Although there are older and larger stakes
than the Derby, none attracts a more cosmopolitan crowd. It is the
dramatic climax to the Kentucky legend, or, in the words of a well-
known sports writer, " 'My Old Kentucky Home' acted out before
your eyes."
All roads lead to Louisville where 70,000 people spend more than
a million dollars. Sleeping quarters cost all the way from one dollar
for a room to a thousand dollars for a large house over the weekend.
Justice relents, and rash and noisy revelers are smilingly indulged.
All the juleps served in Churchill Downs Club bar on Derby Day
would make a long, long drink. Ambassadors, Governors, and screen
stars enter the stands with collegians and stenographers from border-
ing States, and all suddenly wish they had been born in Kentucky.
Occasionally julep-husky baritones of city "big shots" can be heard
when the crowd stands to sing "the sun shines bright ..." A million
radios throughout the country are tuned to give the richest two-minute
suspense of the year. A blanket of roses awaits another champion.
6723-1896723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
PRESS AND RADIO
IN MAY 1785 the second convention to discuss "separation from
Virginia and the formation of a new state," in session at Danville,
passed a resolution to establish a printing press in the western ter-
ritory for the purpose of "giving publicity to the proceedings of the
Convention."
A committee was appointed to negotiate with a printer and start a
paper. But for some reason the West had not appealed to printers,
and none could be found among the settlers in the territory. Finally
a young surveyor and soldier of the Revolution, John Bradford of
Fauquier County, Virginia—without any previous experience as a
printer or editor, but a man of unusual common sense—approached
the committee with the proposition that he would undertake the estab-
lishment of a newspaper if the convention would assure him of public
patronage when the new State came into existence. His terms were
met and the Kentucky Gazette was launched.
The citizens of Lexington were more generous in their support of
the new movement than the citizens of Danville, and when the town
council of Lexington granted Bradford lot number 43, free of cost as
long as the press continued, Lexington became the birthplace of the
first newspaper published in Kentucky.
An antiquated press, type, ink balls, and ink were secured in Phila-
delphia in the summer of 1787. This equipment was hauled over the
mountains to Pittsburgh, loaded on a flatboat and transported to
Maysville, then taken by pack horse to Lexington. Some of the type
was set by Bradford's brother, Fielding Bradford, as they drifted down
the river, but most of it was reduced to "pi" on the journey from
Maysville to Lexington. Nevertheless, on August 11, 1787, Bradford
issued the first edition with an editorial apology. It was a small sheet
about 8 x 10^2 inches, folded once, making a four-page paper of news
collected by the Bradfords on their journey to and from Philadelphia.
No copies of this first issue of about 180 papers are in existence. Local
news was given little consideration in the early editions, but partisan
102
6723-1906723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
PRESS AND RADIO 103
editorials attacking political opponents of the idea of statehood filled
its columns. About the only news preserved for posterity in the
existing issues of the Gazette is what may be gleaned from paid ad-
vertisements and notices.
Bradford became one of Lexington's leading citizens. He served
several terms in the town council, was for many years a trustee of
Transylvania University, and at the time of his death was high sheriff
of Fayette County. He not only published the Gazette but issued
many books and pamphlets. In 1788 he published the first Kentucky
Almanac, and later the first acts of the legislature and Bradford's Laws.
The second newspaper to appear was the Kentucky Herald, published
in 1793, also at Lexington, by James H. Stewart. It had a short life,
but was revived in 1797 at Paris and became the first newspaper of
Bourbon County. The Kentucky Mirror, published at Washington
under the editorship of William Hunter, appeared in the same year.
Hunter was elected State printer in 1798 and moved the Mirror to
Frankfort, where it was published by the Kentucky Journal, begun
in 1795 by Benjamin J. Bradford. Hunter and Bradford established
the Palladium in 1798, and the Mirror was discontinued in 1799. Dur-
ing the next thirty-five years dozens of newspapers sprang up in vil-
lages and towns throughout the State. Many of them lived for only
a short time and were of no consequence. The only factual evidence
that some of these papers actually existed is found in the proceedings
of the early legislatures, which authorized the publication of State ad-
vertisements in them.
The first newspaper that can be considered a success was the Ad-
vertiser, established in Louisville in 1818 and edited by Shadrach
Penn. In 1826 it became the first daily paper in the West. Politically
it was Democratic and supported Andrew Jackson for the Presidency
in 1828. Penn was an able and virile editor, feared by his enemies.
But in 1830 he encountered his equal in George D. Prentice, a young
New Englander, who had been sent to Kentucky by the Whigs to>
write a biography of Henry Clay for campaign purposes. Prentice
attracted the attention of the Kentucky Whigs and was persuaded to
accept the editorship of the newly established Whig organ, the Louis-
ville Journal. An editorial battle began at once between the Demo-
crats, represented by Penn hi the Advertiser, and the Whigs, repre-
sented by Prentice in the Journal. Penn went down in defeat in 1841r
discontinued the Advertiser, and moved to St. Louis.
The Journal from its beginning in November 1830 enjoyed a large
6723-1916723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
104 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
circulation, and for more than forty years Prentice edited it and fought
consistently and courageously for the Whig Party. He was indifferent
to the institution of slavery, but bitterly opposed it when war threat-
ened, since he was a strong advocate of the Union. Throughout the
War between the States, Prentice stood steadfastly by the Union. In
1868 he sold his interest in the Journal and was succeeded by Henry
W. Watterson.
The Louisville Courier, a successful newspaper more interested in
news than editorials, was established in 1844 by Walter N. Haldeman.
Although ordinarily without strong editorial convictions, it took sides
against the North in the War between the States, and was suppressed
by Union forces in 1861. For four years it was published in different
places and under many names; in 1865 it was brought back to Louis-
ville by the original owner and re-established.
A third important Louisville paper, the Louisville Democrat, spon-
sored by the Democratic leader of his time, James Guthrie, was also
established in 1844. It was first edited by Phineas Kent, later by
John H. Harney, and existed until 1868. In that year the Journal,
Courier, and Democrat were merged into one paper, the Courier-
Journal, under the able editorship of Henry Watterson. Under his
editorial leadership the Courier-Journal became the outstanding news-
paper of the State and one of the foremost of the South.
Henry Watterson (1840-1921) was born in Washington, D.C., the
son of a Tennessee Congressman. He began his journalistic career on
Harper's Weekly, the New York Times, and Horace Greeley's New
York Tribune. When the storm of the War between the States began
to gather, Watterson went back to Tennessee, his father's native State,
to become associate editor of the Nashville Banner. During the war
he served as a staff officer and as chief of scouts in the Confederate
Army. He then spent a year in Europe, and returned to revive the
Banner. His success in this undertaking attracted the attention of
Prentice of the Louisville Journal; although they had supported op-
posite sides in the War between the States, Prentice chose the young
man as his successor. Watterson soon became the dean of southern
journalism, as Prentice had been before him.
Affectionately known as "Marse Henry," Watterson was active in
Democratic party affairs, a pleasing and forceful public speaker, and
progressive in thought and action. His literary style was polished and
forceful, and his keen, sometimes caustic, pen roved from heated
political diatribes to scholarly essays. One of his favorite topics was
6723-1926723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
PRESS AND RADIO 105
the authorship of Shakespeare's works, which he attempted to prove
were written by Christopher Marlowe. Although opposed to the saloon,
he did not think prohibition enforceable and considered it an infringe-
ment of the liberties of the American people. He favored a restriction
rather than an extension of suffrage, believing that there already
existed an excess of uninformed voters. Watterson won the Pulitzer
Prize in 1917 for editorials celebrating the entrance of the United
States into the World War. Although a staunch, at times militant,
Democrat, Watterson opposed the League of Nations. On March 5,
1919, he wrote, "Government is a hard and fast and dry reality. At
best statesmanship can only half do the things it would. Its aims
are most assured when tending a little leeward; its footing safest on
its native heath. We have plenty to do on our own continent without
seeking to right things on other continents."
In 1884 Walter N. Haldeman established the Louisville Times, with
Emmet Garvin Logan and E. Polk Johnson as editors. Logan's edi-
torials were short and pithy, usually without headlines, and although
not finished and well organized like the editorials of Watterson, they
appealed to a large constituency. The Times succeeded, and it is
now the only afternoon paper published in Louisville.
Judge Robert W. Bingham purchased the Courier-Journal and the
Times in 1918. Watterson retired from the editorship of the Courier-
Journal and was succeeded by Harrison Robertson. Arthur Krock,
subsequently (1923) compiler of Watterson's Editorials and in 1935
and 1938 a Pulitzer award winner, became the editor of the Times and
was later succeeded by Tom Wallace.
The Courier-Journal and the Times have aggressively supported the
Democratic Party. In 1935 Judge Bingham was made Ambassador to
the Court of St. James's, where he served until his death.
In Lexington the first successful newspaper was the Kentucky Re-
porter, established in 1807 by William Worsley and Samuel Overton.
As its name implied, it stressed local news and was less concerned about
foreign affairs than its predecessor, the Gazette. In 1832 the Reporter
merged with the Lexington Observer and continued the policy of em-
phasizing local news. In politics it was Whig and supported Henry
Clay. After the War between the States it became a staunch Demo-
cratic organ, edited by W. C. P. Breckinridge. Another Democratic
paper emerged during the Reconstruction period,—the Lexington Press,
that city's first daily, established by Colonel Hart Foster and Major
Henry T. Duncan in 1870. It was later consolidated with the Lex-
6723-1936723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
106 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
ington Transcript and was called the Lexington Herald, with Desha
Breckinridge, son of W. C. P. Breckinridge, as editor from 1897 to
1935. The Herald became an outstanding and aggressive mouthpiece
of the Democratic Party in the Bluegrass.
The Lexington Leader was founded in 1888 as a Republican daily by
Samuel J. Roberts of Canton, Ohio. It was one of the pioneers in the
field of specialized news and departments for family reading. In 1937
its owner purchased the Herald and published both papers from the
same press without disturbing the political policy or integrity of either.
Many newspapers in Kentucky—such as the Owensboro Messenger,
established by Urey Woodson in 1881, and the Frankfort Daily and
Weekly Commonwealth, published by Albert Gallatin Hodges—have
had brilliant careers editorially. In most instances the newspaper was
the editor, and the editor was the newspaper. A Kentuckian, for
example, can hardly think of the Courier-Journal without thinking of
Henry Watterson. These editors were born writers without formal
training in schools or colleges of journalism. They fought for ideas and
issues with their pens, and seldom yielded any ground. They had no
press associations where they exchanged views and contributed to each
other's welfare.
This situation was characteristic of the Kentucky press until very
recent years. The newspaper business, however, has become more and
more complex and demands specialized training. In response to this
demand, the University of Kentucky has developed its school of jour-
nalism and sponsors the well-organized Kentucky Press Association.
In addition to its annual meetings, sectional gatherings, where editors
and business managers discuss their mutual problems, are held in
various parts of the State from time to time.
Radio
Anxious listeners in both America and Europe, hearing over the air
waves the incessant plea "Send a boat" during the 1937 flood disaster,
realized that radio, in that tragic hour, was an integral part of Ken-
tucky life.
On Sunday, January 24, 1937, Louisville lay submerged, with only
6723-1946723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
PRESS AND RADIO IO7
a skeleton telephone service, and in near darkness. The order had
been issued that what remained of electric power must be rationed.
Hospitals and broadcasting stations awaited from moment to moment
the interruption of all power. Station WHAS must be kept on the air
until a hook-up with WSM could be completed, and Nashville was
ready to take up broadcasting with the least possible delay. Marooned
people heard that an equipment truck from Nashville had gone astray,
that power was failing rapidly; they listened to offers of aid from all
over the country; at last came word that Nashville was standing by.
A few moments before 1 A.M., in the middle of a sentence, the tired
voice of Louisville's announcer halted. Nashville took up the call—
"Send a boat."
During the emergency period Station WHAS never left the air, put-
ting on approximately 115,000 broadcasts in 187J^ hours of uninter-
rupted service. It served as nerve center of the volunteer network that
carried official flood news. All relief work was directed through WHAS.
The chain included WAVE of Louisville, WCKY at Covington, WPAD
at Paducah, WLAP at Lexington, WOMI at Owensboro, and WCMI
at Ashland, in addition to WSM at Nashville, Tennessee, and WFBM
at Indianapolis, Indiana. Bulletins sent out calls for doctors, medical
aid, food, and resources.
On January 25 a three-way telephone conversation among WHAS,
Columbia Broadcasting System, and National Broadcasting Company,
resulted in the formation of a network covering the United States and
Canada. The British Broadcasting System and, later, other foreign
networks were included. This tied in approximately 5,000 short-wave
stations throughout the world, the largest network ever established in
the history of radio. All directions emanated from Station WHAS.
Volunteer sound equipment units went as near the flooded areas as pos-
sible to amplify directions to rescue workers through loud speakers.
The resultant saving in life and property cannot be estimated.
The flood reached its crest on January 27. The waters receded;
reconstruction work commenced; life resumed its normal course. On
the second Saturday of May sports commentators at Churchill Downs
were broadcasting the Kentucky Derby.
Radio experimentation in Kentucky began in the late nineteenth cen-
tury. About 1892, in the little town of Murray, a wireless telephone
was successfully demonstrated before an audience of 1,000 persons.
The crude radio consisted of a rough box, some telephone equipment,
6723-1956723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
io8 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
rods, and a coil of wire, and was the invention of a farmer, Nathan
B. Stubblefield.
In 1902 Stubblefield went by invitation to Washington, where he
broadcast for a group of prominent scientists from the steam launch
"Bartholdi." The same year he gave a demonstration in Philadelphia
from Belmont mansion and from Fairmont Park, projecting his voice
more than a mile by wireless.
The St. Louis Post Dispatch, in a full-page article on January 12,
1902, said: "However undeveloped his system may be, Nathan B. Stub-
blefield, the farmer inventor of Kentucky, has accurately discovered
the principle of telephoning without wires."
Through an attorney, Rainey Wells, he secured patents in the United
States, Canada, England, France, Spain, and Belgium. To raise capital
for marketing his invention he had sold stock, in 1900, to a small group
of friends. The end of Stubbleneld's business career is shrouded in
mystery. He advised his friends to withdraw such funds as they had
invested, hinting darkly of the rascality of certain eastern associates.
But to none of them did he give concrete information. An old trunk,
in which he kept the invention and the documents concerning it, was
not with him when he subsequently returned from the East, broken and
embittered, to Murray. Whether it was a case of open theft, or
whether he had been the dupe of unscrupulous manipulators, was never
known. He continued his experiments with wireless in a two-room
shack of his own construction. Cornshucks provided protection against
rain and cold. Offers of neighborly aid were refused, an estranged
family was spurned. On March 28, 1928, the body of Stubblefield was
found in his shack; he had apparently been dead about forty-eight
hours.
The State's present radio stations have all developed since 1922,
when an amateur station was licensed as WLAP (now in Lexington),
and WHAS, now part of the Columbia System, went on the air in
Louisville. The National Broadcasting System is represented by
WAVE, in Louisville. Station WCKY is in Covington, WPAD in
Paducah, WOMI in Owensboro, and WCMI in Ashland. WGRC,
the George Rogers Clark Station, has studios in Louisville, as well as
in New Albany and Jeffersonville, Indiana.
Kentucky, because of its topography, offers unusual opportunities for
radio experimentation. Although it was known by 1923 that the human
voice, without the aid of wires, could encircle the earth, there remained
doubt as to whether radio could penetrate the depths of the earth as
6723-1966723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
PRESS AND RADIO IOQ
well. Radio history was made on July 21, 1923, when a successful
broadcast was sent out from Mammoth Cave at a depth of 378 feet.
That morning a junior operator, with assistant and guide, entered the
cave. The personnel of Station WHAS in Louisville was standing
ready to send vocal signals at given hours. The first attempts were
complete failures. The crust of century-old dust made it impracticable
to drive the ground spike. Walls and ceilings dripping with moisture
became natural conductors with a tendency to absorb the signals be-
fore they reached the aerial. At length a spot was found where walls
were dry and the path slightly moist. By mid-afternoon WHAS came
in with surprising volume and complete absence of static.
The mountains and remote country sections also provide territory
for radio development. One of the most interesting experiments is that
of the Mountain Listening Centers. Broadcasts arranged by the Uni-
versity of Kentucky and made possible by private contributors, with
the co-operation of the National Youth Administration, supplement
other forms of educational work among the Kentucky mountaineers.
On October 21, 1934, a series of Sunday morning broadcasts from
the Jefferson County Jail was inaugurated by the Volunteers of
America, with Major W. O. Ulrey in charge, and Lillian B. Ulrey as
soloist. A tiny organ was used at first, but has since been replaced by
a larger electric organ. These broadcasts are heard in jails and penal
institutions in 101 Kentucky counties and in seven State prisons, in-
cluding those in Ohio, Indiana, Tennessee, and Michigan. Thousands
of prisoners, their friends, and relatives have written to the broad-
casters who perform this service.
Interest in television was evident in Kentucky as early as 1929, when
Station WHAS began experimentation, though it had at that time a
power of only a fifth of its present 50,000 watts.
6723-1976723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
THE ARTS
The Theater
FIRST record of public amusement in Kentucky, was an ad-
JL vertisement of May 31, 1797, in the Kentucky Gazette, a Lexing-
ton paper. It announced that "a room for exhibition purposes" had
been erected adjoining Coleman's Tavern for "an exhibition of tum-
bling, balancing on slack wire, slack rope walking and dancing. Admis-
sion to pit, 2 shillings, to gallery, 2 shillings, 2 pence. Doors open at
sunset, performance beginning at dark."
Not until January 1, 1802, however, did theater items begin to ap-
pear in the Gazette, nor was the location of the building, corner of
Spring and Vine Streets, given until June 25, 1811. The owner was
Luke Usher, who was probably the first theatrical manager in central
Kentucky; he also controlled houses at Frankfort and Louisville and
sent his actors from one town to the other, as business justified. Noble
Luke Usher, nephew of the theater owner and a Shakespearean actor
of some standing, joined the company in 1812 with his wife, Harriet
L'Estrange, an actress of unusual attainments and charm. Both were
from the south of Ireland and had been members of a theatrical com-
pany which included the parents of Edgar Allan Poe. It may be that
Poe's story, "Fall of the House of Usher," was based on some tradition
of this family.
The theater of Kentucky was of little consequence until the coming
of the Drake family and their company. The story opens in Albany,
New York. In 1814 Noble Luke Usher arrived at the Albany Theater
to recruit actors for his houses in Kentucky, then regarded as "the
Far West." The adventure appealed to Samuel Drake, stage manager;
he agreed to get a company together and start for Kentucky the fol-
lowing spring. But the task was difficult, for experienced actors hesi-
tated to make the hazardous journey into "the unknown." However,
members of Drake's own family, all actors, and young N. M. Ludlow,
who had recently joined the company to play small parts, were eager
for the adventure.
no
6723-1986723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
THE ARTS III
The party—including Samuel Drake; his sons, Samuel, Jr., Alex-
ander, and James; his daughters, Martha and Julia; and Frances Ann
Denny, N. M. Ludlow, Mr. and Mrs. Lewis, and Joe Tracy, a man
of all work—set out in wagons from Canandaigua, New York, late in
July 1815. They traveled across New York State, thence by boat to
Pittsburgh where they played for some time. In November they
started on their 400-mile journey in a flat-bottomed boat, known in
that day as an "ark" or a "Kentucky broadhorn." Floating down the
Ohio River to Limestone (Maysville), Kentucky, they made the re-
mainder of the trip in wagons to Frankfort. Here, in December 1815,
Kentucky's first real theatrical season opened with The Mountaineer
by Coleman, followed by a farce, The Poor Soldier. The season was
a good one and lasted until March. The players then proceeded by
private conveyance to Louisville, a distance of 50 miles, making the
trip in two days.
"On arriving in Louisville," wrote Samuel Drake, "we found the peo-
ple on the tiptoe of expectation, and anxious for the opening of the
season; but the theater was not in a position to be occupied; it was
dark, dingy and dirty. The scenery was badly painted, the auditorium
was done in the most dismal colors, and the house badly provided with
means for lighting. In about two weeks the theater had been turned
into passable condition for the opening, and we commenced our season
with Coleman's comedy, The Heir at Law, and the comic opera, Sprig
of Laurel. The performance went off with great applause, and the
people appeared delighted with the company. This season of ours in
Louisville, I understand, was the first that had been made by any the-
atrical company. It lasted ten or eleven weeks and was undoubtedly
profitable to the management, for the house was well filled every
night. The season closed with benefits for the company, all of them
being well attended, and this in a town of less than 3,000 inhabitants.
But these people were gay, prosperous and fond of theatrical enter-
tainment."
Drake's company met with similar success in Lexington, where they
opened with Speed the Plough. The old theater building, 80 feet long
by 30 feet wide, had a lower floor with pit and boxes in the London
style; the seats, built up the side of Spring Street hill and rising gradu-
ally from the stage, were covered with canvas and without backs. The
interior was plain, the scenery limited and badly painted, judged by
modern standards. The Kentucky Gazette in 1812 announced that
6723-1996723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
ii2 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
"hereafter the smoking of segars" in the theater would be prohibited;
but a coffee-room and bar "near the stage," offered consolation. The
most popular actors were those who could "hold their liquor like gen-
tlemen."
John Palmer, in Travels in the United States in 1817, mentions at-
tending a performance at Limestone (Maysville), given by a company
of strolling players from England. The plays, Honeymoon and 'Tis All
a Farce, were presented in a frame building "appropriate for theatrical
purposes. . . . The scenery and performance were miserable," he re-
ported, "but the buffoonery of the farce and the orchestra of Negroes,
who performed two tunes with two fiddles and two triangles, kept the
audience in good humor; segar smoking during the performance was
practiced by most men."
Dr. H. McMurtrie, hi his Sketches of Louisville, described the Louis-
ville theater of 1819 as "a handsome brick building of three stories."
Drake's playhouse, called the old City Theater, "was a very creditable
one and had some features not excelled by its successors," wrote
Colonel John T. Gray. "It had a row of private boxes occupying the
whole front of what is now the dress circle, as in the French Opera
House in New Orleans. They were closed in the rear, having doors for
entrances, and open at the front. The second tier was open and cor-
responded to the latter day dress circle, while the third was low priced
as now. The pit was not the choice place, as now, but was occupied
by men, veteran theater-goers and critics. The theater was lighted
with a grand chandelier swung from the dome, and with side lights, all
of sperm candles, and there was never a dripping one."
Samuel Drake successfully managed theaters in Kentucky until 1830.
(He then purchased a farm in Oldham County, where he died October
16, 1854, at the age of eighty-six.) His company remained together
until about 1835 after which some returned East, while others joined
N. M. Ludlow, author of Dramatic Life as I Found It, and head of a
company which held a prominent place in the theatrical world of the
Midwest until the 1850Js. Ludlow's "Kentucky Comedians" played
in Louisville, Lexington, Frankfort, Harrodsburg, Danville, Cincinnati
and adjoining towns. They also ventured as far afield as Nashville,
Natchez, St. Louis, Mobile and New Orleans.
The customary program of this period consisted of a three- to five-
act drama, followed by a two-act farce or comedy; sometimes comic
dialogue or musical solos were added for good measure. Most in de-
6723-2006723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
THE ARTS 113
mand, judging by advertising and requests for return performances,
were: The Soldier's Daughter, The Rivals, The Wheel of Fortune,
Animal Magnetism, or the Doctor Outwitted, Matrimony, or the
Happy Imprisonment, Love a la Mode, or Humors of the Turf, and
Raising the Wind, or How to Live Cheap. Romantic dramas such as
Blue Beard, or Female Curiosity, Abeallino, or the Venetian Outlaw,
Rudolph, or Robbers of Calabria, were enthusiastically received time
and again. The tragedies most frequently advertised were The Re-
venge, The Roman Father, Barbarossa, or Tyrant of Algiers, and
Macbeth, Othello, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, and Richard III.
Sol Smith, author of Theatrical Management in the South and West,
and member of a traveling company which played in the villages
throughout central Kentucky as early as 1829, calls attention to
Drake's singular propensity for adding second titles to plays. "To the
Honeymoon he would add, or The Painter and His Three Daughters.
He always announced the Hunter of the Alps with this addition: Or
The Runaway Horse that Flung its Rider in the Forest of Savoy."
Benefits for the actors were given at the end of the season to pro-
vide funds for idle months ahead. On these nights, friends bought
large blocks of tickets, and added to the success of the performance
by applause. On February 6, 1850, Julia Dean, best remembered as
Lucretia Borgia, took a benefit at the old City Theater in The Wreck-
er*s Daughter, and Faint Heart Never Won Fair Lady. The crowd
was tremendous; many were turned .away and the occasion made the-
atrical history, setting a mark often referred to later. The Daily
Journal went into raptures. "She is not a mere machine," said the
critic, "moving first one arm and then another, uttering mechanical
things, but a creature of fiery genius and passion, pouring forth her
emotions from the depths of an unburdened heart." When Mrs. Kent
took her benefit on April 11 of the same year in Katherine and Pe-
trucfao, an arrangement of Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew, bou-
quets and baskets of flowers were thrown at her feet, with money
hidden among the flowers.
The City Theater was destroyed by fire in May 1843, and Louisville
remained without a theater until February 9, 1846, when the new
Louisville Theater, built on the old site, opened. Douglas Jerrold's
Time Works Wonders was presented, with Julia Dean, granddaughter
of old Samuel Drake, playing Florentine; The Widow's Victim and
The Stagestruck Chambermaid were played as after pieces. Until it
was abandoned in 1873 the Louisville Theater housed the favorite ac-
6723-2016723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
ii4 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
tors and actresses of their day. Junius Brutus Booth appeared there
in December 1848 in a number of his characterizations, his Richard III
being spoken of as "full of genius, truth and nature." The great
Macready played a week's engagement in April 1848 and was said to
have drawn the largest audience ever seen in the theater. The 1860
season closed with Charlotte Cushman's performance in The Stranger.
Laura Keene, the resourceful actress-manager, played here with her
company for three weeks in 1863, presenting such plays as She Stoops
to Conquer, School for Scandal, and Our American Cousin, in which
the elder Sothern later rose to glory. James E. Murdock, James K.
Hackett, John McCulloch, Mr. and Mrs. James Wallack, Frank Mayo,
and Clara Morris appeared year after year. In 1872, when the pres-
tige of the old house was already waning, Cooper and Pyne, Harrison,
and the New Orleans English Opera Company presented a series of
operas, and Strakosch's company with Christina Nilsson filled a short
engagement.
The Louisville Theater was abandoned in 1873 when Barney Ma-
cauley, who had come to Louisville from Memphis, Tennessee, about
the time of the War between the States, offered his first play in the
new $200,000 theater which bore his name. An old "dodger" de-
scribed the building as "constructed and finished in the highest style
of modern art . . . and one of the most substantial and elegant the-
aters in the world." The opening performance on October 13, 1873,
given before a fashionable crowd in the high hats and pompadours of
the period, was the play Extremes, with Marie Bates starred as Lady
Cosby. This marked the beginning of a series of notable productions
that won for Macauley a national reputation.
Colonel John T. Macauley succeeded his brother Barney as manager
in 1879 and retained the management until his death in 1916. Here
on the night of November 27, 1875, Mary Anderson, Louisville's best
beloved actress, made her first appearance as Juliet. Sarah Bernhardt
came to Macauley's in 1880 during her first American tour. It was at
Macauley's on December 7, 1883, that Helena Modjeska, talented Po-
lish actress, appeared in Ibsen's A Doll's House, the first presentation
of Ibsen in America. Given under the title of Thora, the name of the
heroine, now known as Nora, the Ibsen ending was replaced by a
"happy" one. The Courier-Journal critic reported a brilliant audience.
The production, he observed, "was a novelty, curiosity to see Modjeska
in a new role as well as admiration for the great actress" brought it
together. He thought the tragic ending more consistent and predicted
6723-2026723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
THE ARTS 115
the play, which "lived through Modjeska," would never "be very
popular." Joseph Jefferson, Edwin Booth, Lawrence Barrett, Fanny
Davenport, Mrs. Fiske, Maggie Mitchell, Lotta, Ada Rehan, and such
foreign celebrities as Bernhardt, Salvini and Langtry, appeared time
after time at Macauley's until Louisville audiences knew them well
and loved them all. The final chapter was written at the closing per-
formance of the Malcolm Fassett stock season on August 25, 1925.
Macauley's was then torn down to make way for the Starks office build-
ing; with its passing, Louisville lost one of its most colorful and
glamorous historical landmarks.
Other theaters in Louisville came and went, but none ever attained
the prestige of Macauley's. In the nineties Colonel Norton built a
huge, sprawling auditorium on Fifth Street, where prize fights and
Italian opera were housed indiscriminately. Mozart Hall, on Fourth
Street near Liberty, renamed Woods in 1863, was an early amateur
enterprise, one of the first theaters to inaugurate matinees. Later this
theater became the Academy of Music, flourished briefly as the Theatre
Comique, and then passed out of existence. Among the other houses
were the Hopkins, the Masonic Temple, the Buckingham (now the
Savoy) and the Gayety—a vaudeville house. The Brown Theater on
Broadway took the place of Macauley's for a brief while.
The glamorous days of stock companies and road shows are over,
and today Louisville has no legitimate theater. The few noted actors
who still tour the country—such as Katharine Cornell, Helen Hayes
and Walter Huston—play at the Memorial Auditorium.
The little theater movement, however, has had a phenomenal growth
in Kentucky, dating from a performance by the University of Louis-
ville Players in 1911. The initial production of this group was given
in the old clinic of the medical school, with a stage measuring eight by
twelve feet. The first regular season began in 1913. At the present
time practically all the State colleges, the larger high schools, churches,
and many independent organizations have active groups producing
plays regularly. The Little Theater, of Louisville, the Guignol Thea-
ter Company, of Lexington, which owes much of its success to Carol
Sax, and a club at Bowling Green, all give productions of real merit.
The yearly productions at the Louisville Municipal College for Negroes
encourage dramatic activity in Kentucky's Negro schools.
Boyd Martin, dramatic director of the University of Louisville for
the last 25 years and dramatic critic of the Courier-Journal, is in
great measure responsible for the activity of three groups of players in
6723-2036723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
n6 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
Louisville: the University of Louisville Players, The Players Club, and
the Alumni Players. These clubs have been recently combined as the
Little Theater Company of Louisville. Five plays are presented each
season at the Playhouse on Belknap Campus, University of Louisville.
Dedicatory services for the Playhouse, a small Tudor Gothic building
recently remodeled, were held November 12, 1925, the same year in
which Macauley's Theater was razed. Here is housed the gallery of
theatrical pictures formerly a feature of Macauley's lobby, a gift to the
University from Macauley's heirs. The collection, begun when the old
theater opened its doors, contains 3,000 pictures of famous actors and
actresses, many of them autographed. The Guignol Theater in Lex-
ington, under the direction of Frank Fowler, is sponsored by the Uni-
versity of Kentucky and offers five or six plays during the school term
and usually one during the summer.
The newest and one of the most ambitious adventures in theatrical
entertainment in the State is the open air theater in Iroquois Park,
Louisville, built with the aid of the Works Progress Administration.
Ground was broken on April 18, 1938, and the theater opened with a
performance of Naughty Marietta. The seats are in the open and are
placed on natural terraces with a garden wall across the back. The
permanent structure consists of stage, dressing rooms, and offices. The
Park Theatrical Association, a non-profit organization, accepts from the
Park Board responsibility for providing attractions, underwriting the
project against loss, and at the end of each season, turns over profits,
if any, to the city for further improvement of the property. It is note-
worthy that the initial season (1938) showed a profit of $900. The
operas presented were: Naughty Marietta, Rose Marie, The Mikado,
and Rio Rita.
Painting and Sculpture
The pioneers who penetrated the Appalachians could carry but
little equipment; and when they settled on the land they were com-
pelled to rely upon their manual skill for a home and its furnish-
ings. During the early days handicrafts supplied almost all necessary
articles. Furniture, utensils, brooms, rugs, quilts, coverings, cloth,
6723-2046723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
THE ARTS 117
baskets, were woven, spun or tooled by hand. The pioneer women
picked, washed, carded, and spun wool and cotton, and colored them
with dyes made from clays, roots, and bark.
Although utility is the primary aim of the crafts, they stimulate by
their very nature the development of the arts of decoration. The
homespun fabrics were woven according to both new and traditional
designs. The carving of chairs, stools, tables, benches, and bedsteads
produced in time an indigenous style. Coverlets and quilts, objects of
special regard among pioneer women, were ornamented with colored
flowers and stitching which often reached a high level of creative
design.
The pioneer crafts declined with the advance of roads and machine-
made goods, and by the end of the nineteenth century they had all
but disappeared. A few "pockets" in the mountains and valleys of
eastern Kentucky continued, however, to preserve the remnants of the
old skills. Recently a broad movement, in which Berea College took
the lead in 1893, has developed to revive and stimulate the local
crafts. Schools and centers have been set up in many parts of the
State to encourage their practice and to carry them forward in new
directions. Besides furniture and textiles, ironwork, poppets (mountain
dolls), dulcimers, toys, and whittled animals and figures are among the
products of the "contemporary ancestors."
The early history of the State was not, however, solely one of fron-
tier hazards. Some of the pioneers who settled in the soft lands of
central Kentucky soon built fine homes, lived in comfort, and even
with a degree of luxury, entertained visitors from the East, and fos-
tered whatever fine arts were accessible. Here the collection of silver-
ware was popular, and knives, spoons, forks, pitchers, ladles, and
mint julep cups were fashioned from coin metal. Asa Blanchard
and Samuel Ayres are among the silversmiths whose names have sur-
vived. A good deal of this early work is still to be found in Kentucky,
including a teapot and pitcher made for Isaac Shelby, first Governor,
and a service (dated 1819) for General Green Clay.
By 1825 Lexington, then the cultural center of the State and proud
to be known as the "Athens of the West," ranked with New Orleans
as a center for portrait painters. John Neagle, who came from Phila-
delphia in 1818, found himself in competition with a native Kentuckian
already firmly established as one of the leading portrait painters of his
day. This was Matthew H. Jouett (1787-1827), called "the best
painter west of the Appalachians."
6723-2056723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
n8 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
Jouett had been a student of Gilbert Stuart for several months, but
was largely self-taught. Showing a keen sense of character, firm draw-
ing and brush work, and a feeling for strong composition, his work set
a standard for the Kentucky portraitists who followed. Though but
fifteen years of his brief life were devoted to painting, he left hundreds
of portraits, which today constitute a roll call of the notable figures of
early-Republican Kentucky. The J. B. Speed Memorial Museum in
Louisville includes in its collection ten Kentucky portraits by Jouett;
Transylvania College in Lexington has his painting of Henry Clay; and
the Kentucky State Historical Society has a number of his canvases,
including a full-length portrait of the Marquis de Lafayette, painted
as a memento of his visit to Kentucky in the spring of 1825.
A contemporary of Jouett, William Edward West (1788-1857), son
of a Lexington inventor and silversmith, studied under Sully in Phila-
delphia, and later continued his education abroad, where he received
attention for his portrait of Byron. West also made a sketch of Shelley,
and was commissioned for portraits by many well-known figures of his
day. In Paris he formed the acquaintance of Washington Irving and
became his close friend, illustrating his The Pride of the Village and
Annette Delabre. The career of West is a Kentucky example of the
early tendency among American artists to seek education and a con-
genial life in the cities of Europe.
In sculpture Italy was the chief influence hi the first half of the nine-
teenth century. Joel T. Hart (1810-1877), who was born in Win-
chester, spent many years in Florence. His Triumph of Chastity is
typical in style and theme of the sculpture of the period. He is per-
haps most popularly known for his statue of Henry Clay at Richmond,
Virginia, a copy of which stands in the rotunda of the Jefferson County
Courthouse in Louisville, Kentucky. Hart was associated with Gideon
Shryock (1802-1880) in the building of the Old Capitol at Frankfort.
In contrast with these expatriate artists, John James Audubon (1779-
1851) and Chester Harding (1792-1866) established wide reputations
through their paintings of local subjects. Audubon lived at Henderson
and at Louisville for several years, and gathered material on the Ohio
River for his monumental Birds of America. The J. B. Speed Museum
has five portraits by him, and there are numerous collections of Audu-
bon's prints in Kentucky, the largest of which is housed in the Museum
ha Audubon Memorial Park at Henderson.
Chester Harding, who achieved a tremendous reputation during his
lifetime, was born in Massachusetts, but spent much of his early life
6723-2066723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
THE ARTS IIQ
wandering in the newly settled territories. He arrived in Paris, Ken-
tucky, about 1818 when portraits were much in demand. Later he
went to Missouri and painted the picture of Daniel Boone, which hangs
in the Filson Club in Louisville.
Other Kentucky painters of this epoch were Joseph H. Bush (1794-
1865); John Grimes (1799-1837), a pupil of Jouett; Oliver Frazer
(1808-1864); and E. F. Goddard, who settled in Georgetown about
1840. Edward Troye (1804-1874), a Swiss who arrived in America in
1828, achieved much renown as a painter of horses. James Reid
Lambdin (1807-1889), famous for his portraits of American Presi-
dents, moved to Louisville in 1832.
Frank Duveneck (1848-1919), outstanding American painter, sculp-
tor, etcher, and teacher, was born in Covington. During a prolonged
period of study at Munich, he absorbed the new brushwork technique
of that school, and on his return to America became a leading influence
of the latter half of the nineteenth century. In his later years he
served as Dean of the Cincinnati Art School and made his home per-
manently in Covington. In St. Mary's Cathedral in Covington are
some large murals by Duveneck, Crucifixion, Christ at Emmaus, and
others painted about 1910.
Alfred L. Brennan (1853-1921), born in Louisville, was known for
his illustrations. Charles Courtney Curran, winner of many prizes and
medals both in America and abroad, was born in Hartford, Kentucky,
in 1861. Charles Sneed Williams (b. 1882) is represented at the State
Capitol, the Kentucky State Historical Society, and the Speed Memo-
rial Museum. Enid Yandell (1870-1934), whose work in sculpture is
well known, was a native of Louisville. Her Daniel Boone, a character
study, first exhibited at the Chicago Fair in 1893, stands in Cherokee
Park in Louisville. Near by is Hogan Fountain also designed and
executed by her.
Paul Sawyier (d. 1917) painted views along the Kentucky and Dix
Rivers above Frankfort. His water colors and oils are subjective in-
terpretations, rich in atmosphere and feeling. Dean Cornwell, who has
achieved a reputation as an illustrator and mural painter, was born in
Louisville in 1892 and received his first instruction in art there; his
work has been exhibited at the Speed Museum. Charles Warner Wil-
liams, an example of whose work is to be seen at Berea College, was
born in Henderson in 1903.
In recent years a number of public monuments have been dedicated
in the State. A. A. Weinman's (b. 1870) seated Lincoln is in the
6723-2076723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
120 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
public square at Hodgenville, and another Lincoln, in a standing pos-
ture, by the same artist, is in the rotunda of the State Capitol at Frank-
fort. A replica of George Gray Barnard's colossal Lincoln at Cincin-
nati, Ohio, stands in the grounds of Louisville's Public Library. The
statue of William Goebel in front of the Capitol grounds in Frankfort
is by Charles N. Niehaus (1855-1935), and one of James Kennedy
Patterson on the campus of the University of Kentucky is the work of
Augustus Lukeman (1871-1935). A bronze statue of Thomas Jeffer-
son, a work of much imagination by Moses Jacob Ezekiel (1844-1917),
stands in front of the Jefferson County Courthouse in Louisville.
George Rogers Clark's departure from Fort Harrod on the expedition
that was to win the Northwest Territory is commemorated at Harrods-
burg, the site of Fort Harrod, by a high-relief done in granite by Ulric
Ellerhusen (b. 1879). Other Kentucky monuments are the statue of
John B. Castleman by Roland Huston Perry, a memorial to Governor
H. Clay Egbert by John Carlisle Meyenberg, and the Charles J.
Duncan Memorial by George Julian Zolnay—all in Louisville.
Of major interest is the current revival of mural painting. The
Marine Hospital in Louisville has a series of panels by Henrick M.
Mayer, executed under the section of painting and sculpture of the
Federal Treasury Department, dramatizing the Ohio River steamboat
trade of half a century ago. In the lobby of the Seelbach Hotel,
Louisville, is a series of murals by Arthur Thomas, depicting the pio-
neer life and history of Kentucky and Northwest Territories, In the
Federal Building at Louisville, the postal service and Kentucky indus-
tries are shown in a group of decorations by Frank Long, whose two
murals at the University of Kentucky Library are a vigorous interpre-
tation of rural and mountain life. In the foyer of the University's
Memorial Hall is a fresco by Ann Rice, the only example of this me-
dium in the State. In Louisville two murals by Ferdinand G. Walker
are in St. Peter's Church, and the State Capitol at Frankfort has
murals by Gilbert White.
Several nationally known cartoonists and caricaturists—including
Fontaine Fox, Wyncie King, and Paul Plaschke—are from Kentucky.
In the field of "popular" art, paintings, prints, tombstones, and monu-
ments of horses are among Kentucky's interesting contributions. A
life-size bronze stands over the grave of Fair Play, great sire of the
Elmendorf Farm, the central Kentucky estate of Joseph Widener. At
Hamburg Place, the property of Ed Madden, is a graveyard enclosed
by a gray stone fence, horseshoe-shaped; here are buried many famous
6723-2086723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
THE ARTS 121
Madden runners, including Nancy Hanks, champion trotting mare. At
Colonel E. R. Bradley's place, near Lexington, a small bronze statue
has been erected over the grave of North Star III.
The Federal Art Project, started in February 1936, has worked to
promote the development of native talent. Besides its other activities,
the project has made valuable reproductions of old furniture and de-
signs with the aim of perpetuating the tradition and accomplishments
of early Kentucky craftsmen.
Literature
Since Kentucky was admitted to the Union as early as 1792 it
might be assumed that its literary development would, in a gen-
eral way, parallel that of the new Nation, moving through a protean
romanticism to an equally protean realism. And that, up to a certain
point, and with modifications imposed by its sectional character, is pre-
cisely what Kentucky literature has done.
To a population whose booklovers had been reared pretty largely in
the traditions of Walter Scott and Lord Byron, a love for historical fic-
tion, for florid oratory, for the passionate expression of emotion, came
without much effort. Its liking for the Gothic elements of narrative
has not yet been wholly satisfied, and from Catharine A. Warfield's
The Romance of Beauseincourt (1867) through Robert Burns Wilson's
Until the Day Break (1900), down to the detective novels of the late
Foxhall Daingerfield, Kentuckians have enjoyed the stock materials
which arouse horror and mystery. This sensationalism, growing out
of an essentially aristocratic attitude, is a minor trait of Kentucky lit-
erature, to be sure. The spread of democratic feeling in a State which
was, despite any pretensions to the contrary, founded upon a midwest-
ern democracy, was inevitable; by the middle of the nineteenth century,
books which had the best chance to succeed in Kentucky were those
which had not a little relation to actualities—books which preserved
the homely manners, the homely humor, and the homely dialect of its
people. Out of this regionalism—qualified, it is important to note, by
a gentility which survived from the height of the romantic movement—
came the impetus for the most noted of Kentucky's novelists.
6723-2096723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
122 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
The first of these, and the one that should be read first by the visitor
to Kentucky, is James Lane Allen. Born near Lexington in 1849, he
located the scenes for fifteen of his nineteen books in the Bluegrass of
his native State. His second volume, The Blue-grass Region of Ken-
tucky (1892), was an account of Kentucky landscapes, houses, people,
and manners, with a nostalgic longing for a culture which had died
during the War between the States. In his fiction Allen made the cen-
tral plateau of Kentucky as familiar to the national public as any other
section popularized by any author. If the name of Kentucky is today
an alluring one, it is chiefly because of the legends and facts that
cluster about the figure of Daniel Boone, because of the fading con-
vention of resounding public speech, because of the genuine balladry
of the mountains and the simulated balladry of Stephen Collins Foster,
and because James Lane Allen wrote such novels as A Kentucky Car-
dinal (1895), The Choir Invisible (1897), and The Reign of Law
(1900).
Allen began by following in the steps of the local colorists. Before
the opening of the twentieth century he passed on into a realism in-
spired by his reading and by a maturing philosophy, a realism which
eventually shocked and alienated his readers, especially his Kentucky
readers. Disturbed by the antagonism and condemnation he had in-
spired, Allen turned back briefly to romance, then experimented with
a realism deeply colored by symbolism, and ended with narratives
which he intended to transcend all schools. Much of what he wrote
is now forgotten; much will never have value save for the student and
historian. But Allen did preserve, in a style which became progres-
sively imposing and artificial, many scenes and people, and customs
which anyone who wishes to know the Bluegrass must read. Note, for
example, what tinges of romance his early "The White Cowl" and
uSister Dolorosa" add to the Trappist monastery of Gethsemane and
the convent at Loretto. One should read The Choir Invisible for an un-
matched re-creation of the idealism of the best Bluegrass blood of a
former age. A reading of "King Solomon of Kentucky" and "Two
Gentlemen of Kentucky" will add sentimental interest to any stay at
Lexington. Allen's writing after 1910 failed to win critical or popular
approval; today it is little known and probably on the way to oblivion.
This decline was owing, as intimated, to the fact that he became the
victim of his precious style, and to the additional fact that he was un-
willing to throw off his mantle of gentility. Before he died in 1925 he
had outlived both his fame and his once sizeable earnings.
6723-2106723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
THE ARTS 123
Influenced at the outset by James Lane Allen, John Fox, Jr., man-
aged to combine romance and realism more shrewdly, more palatably.
Born near Paris in 1863, Fox later made his home in the highlands
which meet on the borders of Virginia and Kentucky at Big Stone Gap.
Here he found the material which put two of his .novels among the
best-selling American books of all time: The Little Shepherd of King-
dom Come (1903) and The Trail of the Lonesome Pine (1908). The
material, of course, was the mountaineer and his manners. In narra-
tive these novels, perhaps, surpass anything Allen wrote; indeed, The
Trail builds a climax which most novelists would be glad to equal. A
pupil of the regional writers, Fox met the demands of his generation
by idealizations of character which now provoke skepticism. Commen-
tators are likely to complain of the romanticism which made the primi-
tive mountaineer a nobler individual than the inheritor of Bluegrass
civilization. On the other hand, the mountain people protest that his
representations of them are unfair and untrue, particularly as he em-
phasizes feuds, lawlessness, and moonshining. Like Allen, Fox found
his literary reputation waning before he died in 1919. Authors who
put their trust in regionalism are likely to find their material limited,
their themes repetitious.
This is the peril confronting Elizabeth Madox Roberts, born near
Perryville in 1885, who writes not of the mountaineers, as most eastern
reviewers take for granted, but of the farmers southward from Louis-
ville. Miss Roberts is at her best when most subjective; perhaps no
living American writer has more truthfully explored the consciousness
of the adolescent girl, of the lonely and poetic woman. Her first
volume was verse, Under the Tree (1922), now very rare. She has also
attempted the historical novel in The Great Meadow (1930), which in-
troduces Boone and what is now Harrodsburg, and satire upon the
contemporary scene in the obscure but not doctrinnaire Jingling in the
Wind (1928) and He Sent Forth a Raven (1935). Her latest story,
Black is My Truelove's Hair (1938), is a tragi-comedy of the Ken-
tucky countryside. No well-read person will be unacquainted with her
first novel, The Time of Man (1926), which in its universality has the
earmark of a classic.
Irvin S. Cobb, also an offspring of the regionalists, will escape their
fate by virtue of his humor and because he has created one of the most
lovable heroes, the canny, benevolent Judge Priest. Cobb describes a
still different section of Kentucky—the Purchase, whose capital is
Paducah, where he was born in 1876. He captures and reveals with
6723-2116723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
124 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
sometimes irrelevant details the era of steamboat traffic on the Ohio,
of leisurely and kindly living in southern provinces. One of the best-
paid of present-day story writers, he is usually represented in antholo-
gies by "The Belled Buzzard" and "Words and Music," the latter per-
haps his finest narrative so far.
Another Kentuckian to produce a book ranking among the best
sellers of all time is Alice Hegan Rice, of Louisville, whose Mrs.
Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch (1901) taught the favorite American
gospel that poverty can be supported with courage and honor. The
scene is laid in Louisville. Widely read, too, have been the "Emmy
Lou" stories of Mrs. George Madden Martin and the "Little Colonel"
series of Annie Fellows Johnston, both of Pewee Valley.
Kentucky regionalism found a virile, lyrical voice in 1935 when Jesse
Stuart (1906- ) surprised the literary world with his Man with a
Bull-Tongue Plow, a prodigal book of more than 700 sonnets about
"birds, cornfields, trees, wildflowers, log shacks, my own people, val-
leys and rivers and mists in the valleys." Often crude in form and
mediocre in content, these musical sonnets have a refreshing spon-
taneity and a ringing sincerity. Stuart resorts to poetry to celebrate
the beauties of nature and an ancestral way of life that he finds good,
but uses prose to tell about the people of the foothills of eastern Ken-
tucky. Something of their angularity is portrayed in some of the
casually grim or profanely humorous stories in Head o' W-Hollow
(1936). In these stories, with their odd characters and episodes of
frustration and tragedy, Stuart achieves a form of implicit criticism not
often found in his poetry. His autobiography, Beyond Dark Hills
(1938), first written while he was attending college, is an understand-
ing account of the more representative folk of his region—the hill
farmers who have wrestled with a tough, stingy soil for generations, and
faced sickness, hardship, isolation and death with equanimity.
It is difficult to account for the absence of first-rate poets among a
people fundamentally romantic. The explanation probably lies in the
lack of critical guidance, in a hampering conservatism, and in the lack
of local encouragement. Madison Cawein, for example, blinded by the
magic of Keats and Spenser, could do no better with Kentucky than
populate the woods near Louisville with fays, elves, pixies, oreads, and
the like; in this process he was too prolific, too oblivious to things
human. Sometimes called the greatest nature poet of his day, he died
disappointed, convinced that his world of dreams had been shattered
by pressing poverty and illness. A less melodious poet is Cale Young
6723-2126723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
THE ARTS 125
Rice, of Louisville, who carries on the classical tradition of English
verse and resents recent experiments in versification. It must be said
of Kentucky poets, as of the prose writers, that they have failed, either
through lack of vision or of courage, to give the State the epical treat-
ment in literature which it deserves.
Architecture
Kentucky, like most of our western States, passed through a pio-
neering period—the period of the "clearing" in the timber, the stock-
ade fort, and the Wilderness Road. Forests had to be cleared;
land had to be broken; a new domain had to be brought under the
hand of the plowman. The story of those early parties, of their settle-
ments here, of grim days of privation and Indian peril, are eloquently
recorded in the architecture of the old stockade forts like Fort Harrod,
so admirably reconstructed at Harrodsburg.
As soon as the country had been made safe for settlement, Ken-
tucky's virgin acres had to be made to produce, and produce abun-
dantly, before anything like a real competence could be won from the
soil. But the sturdy pioneers did conquer the soil and did establish
in the wilderness the foundations of a commonwealth as early as the
last quarter of the eighteenth century.
With the establishment of an agricultural economy there came a
second architectural expression—the log cabin. These staunch and
rugged four-square old houses, with rough-hewn walls and dirt floors,
are emblematic of the type of life which was lived in them, and sym-
bolic of the men and women who inhabited them. Good examples of
the house of this period are the Marriage Place of Tom Lincoln and
Nancy Hanks in Pioneer Park at Harrodsburg, and the old Creel
Cabin (see Tour 6) on the Lincoln birthplace farm near Hodgenville.
Beginning with stockade forts and log cabins, architectural expres-
sion in Kentucky passed through successive phases, eventually culmi-
nating in the great porticoed brick mansions which lend so much charm
to the countryside.
Thus Kentucky architecture parallels the course of architecture upon
the Atlantic seaboard with this difference; a style or a fashion well
6723-2136723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
known in the maritime States will often not make its appearance in
Kentucky for from 10 to 30 years later. Once acclimated, however,
such vogues are as likely to persist here as in other areas. It is, there-
fore, not feasible to set down the chronology for seaboard architecture
and expect it completely to apply to the course of the art in Kentucky.
Chronologically it must be pointed out that the term "Colonial," so
far as Kentucky architecture is concerned, can have no historic con-
notation and is employed only to refer to that variety of architecture
which arose upon the Atlantic seaboard during the Colonial period and
belatedly reached Kentucky. Because of this fact one should be care-
ful in the use of the word. The term is generally very loosely applied
to Kentucky architecture, being used to designate not only the true
Colonial but also the porticoed house of the Greek Revival, so common
in the State. "Liberty Hall" in Frankfort, "Federal Hill" (see. Tour
15) near Bardstown, and the Benjamin Gratz House in Lexington are
perfect examples of the Georgian phase of Kentucky Colonial and
should not be confused with such Greek Revival examples as the Or-
lando Brown House in Frankfort, Beaumont Inn (Daughters' College)
in Harrodsburg, or old Centre College at Danville, Morrison College
of Transylvania, and the Old Statehouse at Frankfort.
After the advent of railways and the accompanying facility in the
exchange of ideas and materials, the development of architecture in
Kentucky, particularly in the towns and cities, more nearly paralleled
that of the eastern part of the United States. This was especially true
after tbe reconstruction period that followed the Civil War.
The first phase (the log cabin) of early Kentucky architecture dates
from 1767 to 1786. Although Gabriel Arthur, of Virginia, appears to
have traversed territory now within Kentucky as early as 1674, nothing
that can even remotely be termed architecture was erected in the State
for nearly a century. What purports to be the ruined chimney of the
"first house in Kentucky," built by Dr. Thomas Walker (see Tour 4A)
about 1750, is today preserved at the Walker State Park near Barbour-
ville. The exact form of this house is not known, but a log cabin in
the accepted style of the day has been erected to give the visitor some
notion of Kentucky's "first home." At the time that Kentucky was
being settled the log cabin built of horizontal logs had long since be-
come the recognized type for the pioneer woodsman. These houses
could be built of the timber taken from the lands which the settlers
cleared for cultivation and were, when well "chinked" with mud or
plaster, warm in winter and cool in summer. The simpler cabins
6723-2146723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
THE ARTS 127
usually consisted of one room, sometimes of two. Often two portions
of a house were separated by an open passageway or "dogtrot" porch,
as it was sometimes locally called. This passageway often served as a
washroom, where extra wood for the kitchen fire and a bench with
water pail and wash basin were kept.
Such cabins were usually constructed of round logs flattened upon
two sides in order to make a better joint. These were halved into
each other at the corners, the ends left to project about a foot. If a
foundation was used, it was of stone and the massive fireplace was of
the same material. Above the throat of the fireplace the chimney was
constructed of "stocks" or logs carefully chinked, at first with clay but
later with mortar. In time the "stock" chimneys, always in danger of
burning, were replaced with stone. The roofs were at first covered
with "shucks," later with bark "shingles," and finally with hand-split
"shakes" held in place by long poles secured at the ends. Often the
floors were of dirt, but these were in time replaced with "puncheons"
or split logs, usually very uneven and sometimes full of splinters. Be-
fore glass was available windows were protected by skins or heavy shut-
ters. Upon occasion oiled paper was used in lieu of glass, this being
protected by wooden slats. Kentucky has a wealth of examples coming
down from pioneer days, the old Creel cabin on the Lincoln Birthplace
farm being a good example of the more elaborate type. Old Fort
Harrod at Harrodsburg, reconstructed in 1926, forms an easily acces-
sible exhibit of the pioneer stage of Kentucky architecture.
Succeeding the earliest cabins just described there appeared a more
refined variety of log house. This was constructed of beautifully hewn
squared logs carefully jointed and calked. Stone foundations and stone
or brick chimneys were usual, and in general plan such houses resem-
bled the more adequate types left behind by the settlers who came from
the Atlantic seaboard. Many comfortable and respectable looking
Kentucky houses of this type of construction are still standing, an
excellent example being the Wilmore Garrett place not far from Lex-
ington. It is a well proportioned two-story house of Georgian Colonial
lines, resembling in general character the architecture of Tuckahoe in
Virginia. The stairway ascends from a central hallway, the more im-
portant rooms flanking the entry. This house, like many another, was
covered with clapboards and, with the addition of a classic portico,
attained a real gentility. At the rear of this house a fine stone wing,
the next step in the utilization of materials, is to be seen.
Stone, where it was readily available, early became a favorite ma-
6723-2156723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
i2S KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
terial. As a matter of fact, stone as an architectural material really
came into prominence before the cabin type went out of use. There
are still extant many smaller stone houses, now long used for Negroes
or servants, that were the habitations of the original landowners.
More genteel and commendable examples of stone construction, how-
ever, are the fine old structures at Shakertown (see Tour 15), the rear
wing of the Garrett house above mentioned, and the old DuPuy farm-
house below Versailles in Woodford County. This latter house is of
two stories with a central hall, a quaint front porch, and simple but
dignified mantels. Built of cream-gray Kentucky "marble" with white
wood trim and green shutters, this staunch old house has real distinc-
tion.
Georgian and Federal architecture in Kentucky prevailed from 1786
to 1825. In a sense the advent of brick as a structural material may
be said to signalize the arrival of Georgian forms in Kentucky. The
William Whitley House (see Tour 3) in Lincoln County, built in 1786,
was one of the earliest of the Georgian types, and the "first brick
house" in the State. In mass this structure is not unlike the simpler
two-story houses of old Virginia and, as in these, the brick work is in
Flemish bond with dark headers. It was followed by a brilliant com-
pany of noble houses, the general arrangement of which, following the
models of Virginia, provided a broad central hall with a stairway up to
a landing from which it returned to the second floor. Ceilings were
high and windows double-hung with 12- or 16-paned sashes.
Often Palladian windows, an invention of the Italian Renaissance
introduced through England to America, were used either over the prin-
cipal portal, as at ''Liberty Hall" in Frankfort, or for the regular open-
ing, as at the old Muldrow farm (see Tour 14) near Milner, and at the
Eliza Cleveland house in Versailles. Each important room had a beau-
tiful mantel, while an arch, spanning the central hall and supported
upon delicately fluted columns, often divided the hall into "front" and
"back."
Perhaps no single example of Georgian architecture in Kentucky is
better known than "Federal Hill" (see Tour 15) near Bardstown.
Built in 1795 by John Rowan, this sedate but graceful home was
constructed of native brick with stone foundations, the brick laid in
Flemish bond but without the dark headers. The main house, con-
sisting of two stories and a low attic, would present the typical
Georgian plan were it not for the fact that what would ordinarily be
a rear room, on the west side of the hall, is here replaced by a service
6723-2166723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
THE ARTS 129
court which intervenes between the dining room and the one-story
detached kitchen wing. The house is nobly proportioned, both inside
and out. The windows are of the generous 12-paned variety, while
long side windows, fitted with double-hung six-paned sashes, flank
the simple, classically enframed portal.
A broad central hall, spanned by a beautiful arch carried upon deli-
cately fluted colonnettes, leads through the house. At the right, be-
yond the archway, the stairway ascends to a landing above the rear
door, from which it returns on the left of the hall to the second floor.
At the right as one enters is the dining room; at the left the parlor,
behind which is a lower bedroom. Above, a similar arrangement pro-
vides three bedrooms with a library over the front hall. The parlor,
dining room and bed chambers are provided with mantels, which con-
nect with chimneys that go up through inside walls. Each of these
mantels is a splendid example of the carver's art.
A Georgian house quite similar in plan to "Federal Hill" is "Liberty
Hall" in Frankfort. In this notable house, built by the Honorable
John Brown in 1796, the plan suggested in the remarks about "Federal
Hill" is realized; that is, the central hall with spanning arch and stair-
way is flanked by two rooms on either side. Moreover, the kitchen
wing, which at "Federal Hill" is upon a lower level, is here upon the
same level and is better related to the house proper. "Liberty Hall"
therefore represents the full-blown Georgian plan.
Here also the general mass of the house has received greater thought
and presents, in its pediment-crowned frontal bay, a motif quite usual
in the Pennsylvania and Virginia houses of its day. The portal is of
noble lines and above it is the handsomest Palladian window in Ken-
tucky. The interior woodwork, particularly the doors, windows, and
wainscots, are chaste in proportion and classic in detail.
A charming Federal example is the fine old house in St. Matthews,
now owned by Judge Churchill Humphrey (see Tour 16). This house
has a well-designed central mass flanked by outlying wings connected
by lower links. In massing, this structure recalls the Maryland plan-
tation houses and bears a striking resemblance to "Homewood," the
old Carroll mansion now on the campus of Johns Hopkins University
at Baltimore. The beautiful tetrastyle portico, with its delicate attenu-
ated columns, makes a splendid entrance to the spacious arched front
hall, which leads into a cross corridor giving access to the wings. In the
central mass just beyond the cross corridor are the high-ceilinged
living room at the left and the dining room at the right. The wood-
6723-2176723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
130 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
work throughout the house is as refined as the frontal portico, the
whole constituting an excellent example of that simplicity, lightness,
and delicacy in carving that characterizes the "Federal" era at its best.
Lovely mantels grace each room.
Other outstanding examples of Georgian and Federal architecture are
the Crittenden house in Frankfort, "Wickland" near Bardstown; the
Eliza Cleveland and Lyle houses in Versailles; "Clay Hill" and the
Vaught (Burford) house, in Harrodsburg; "Castlewood," "Woodlawn"
(see Tour 4), and "Woodstock" at Richmond; "Rose Hill," "Eothan,"
the John W. Hunt house, "Loudoun," Bodley House, and the Benjamin
Gratz house, in Lexington; Xalapa Farm near Paris; the "Grange" and
the Clark farm on the Paris-Maysville Pike, various brick houses in
Shakertown (see Tour 15); the Colonel Andrew Muldrow house (see
Tour 14) near Milner; and various lesser, though often as interesting,
structures throughout the State.
The Greek Revival was tardy in reaching Kentucky. By 182S, how-
ever, Greek details were beginning to make their appearance upon
otherwise Georgian structures and by 1830, largely through the instru-
mentality of Gideon Shryock, the style was well established in Ken-
tucky.
Shryock, who was born in Lexington where he learned the practical
art of building from his father, Mathias Shryock (1774-1833), pur-
sued the study of architecture with William Strickland of Philadelphia,
who, in turn, had been trained by Latrobe. Perhaps Shryock's most
notable work is the Old Capitol (now the State Historical Society
Building) in Frankfort. This beautiful and well proportioned edifice,
built of Kentucky "marble," immediately set a precedent for elegance
and dignity in public buildings in the State, and did much to stimulate
interest in classic design. Other important public structures, designed
by Shryock, are Morrison College, Lexington, the old Bank on Main
Street, the Blind Institute and the Jefferson County Court House, all
in Louisville.
The Greek influence in Kentucky was first apparent in classical
porches, mantels, and other details, which were used to adorn masses
otherwise reminiscent of the past vogue in architecture. Soon, however,
the masses themselves took on more and more of the Greek temple and
all details—doors, windows, and stairways—became completely Hel-
lenized. It was at this period that the stately columned porticoes,
usually of the Doric or Ionic order, made their appearance. Gleaming
white, these classic portals, seen across a bluegrass greensward or dis-
6723-2186723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
THE ARTS 131
covered at the end of a shady tree-lined drive, are among the most de-
lightful sights in the older sections of the State.
One of the earliest true Greek Revival houses in Kentucky is the
Orlando Brown House in Frankfort, built in 1835 by John Brown of
"Liberty Hall" for his son. Gideon Shryock, architect of the Capitol,
was called to execute this task and here showed himself as much a
master at the design of private buildings as of public structures. The
simple four-square mass of this brick structure is crowned by a low
pediment fronting the street and pierced by a fanlight—reminiscent
of the Georgian. A one-storied tetrastyle Ionic portico shelters a sim-
ple rectangular doorway and forms a "support" to a triple-membered
unshuttered window in the upper hall, similar to the windows at
"Mansfield" described below. The four other windows of the fagade
have six-paned Georgian sashes, flanked by slatted blinds.
A full-blown Greek Revival example is "Mansfield," the Thomas
Hart Clay house, just east of the famous "Ashland" on the Richmond
Pike in Lexington. Like the Churchill Humphrey house, it has a dig-
nified central mass with low attic and ridge paralleling the street,
flanked at either end by lower masses with gable ends. Still lower,
links join the three masses and complete the ensemble. A feature of
the central fagade is a graceful tetrastyle Ionic portico sheltering a
Greek pilastered entrance, which is capped with transom and entabla-
ture. The walls of the fagade are relieved by pilasters in brick with
membering at the corners and triple windows enframed in the same
style as the doorway. These Greek windows are not shuttered.
Throughout this house, inside and out, the chaste sobriety of the Greek
Revival at its best is exemplified.
While the typical Greek Revival house is fronted by a two-storied
portico of Doric or Ionic design, many examples in Kentucky exhibit
variations therefrom as charming as they are unusual. An excellent
and unique portico is that of the old Adam Childers House on the high
school campus at Versailles, where a splendid effect has been obtained,
not by the use of columns at all, but by the use of square piers sim-
ply molded and decorated by a necking embodying a simple Greek
fretwork.
At "Diamond Point" in Harrodsburg a two-storied portico with
Doric columns, set between square end piers, shelters a rich and elabo-
rately carved doorway and a narrow lacy balcony that crosses the
fagade at the second story level.
Sometimes the use of a portico is dispensed with altogether and the
6723-2196723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
132 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
fagade is decorated with a two-storied recessed entrance, as in the Dr.
Robert Alexander Johnston house in Danville. Here simple fluted
Doric colonnades, set distyle in antis, form the entrance on the first
floor, while a similar arrangement above, provided with a balcony rail,
makes a small recessed porch. An important portal of this type, but
under a portico, is to be seen at the Moberly house in Harrodsburg.
Windows enframed with simple Greek architraves often exhibit
Greek anthemion and "honeysuckle" motifs as applied decoration.
Good examples of these are seen at the Stephenson house in Harrods-
burg.
The plan of the Greek house in the main followed Georgian lines, an
arrangement which in the preceding period had been found admirably
adapted to living in Kentucky. Often Georgian details were retained
inside the house, an excellent example being the staircase, which seems
to have remained steadfastly Georgian even in the late Greek house,
as at "Scotland" on the Frankfort-Versailles Pike. But alongside the
Georgian staircases one finds heavy Greek enframed interior doors and
windows, mantels, and woodwork. Often Ionic and upon occasion
Corinthian columns carried a cornice, which, at the wall, rested upon
pilasters to form effectively trimmed openings between rooms. The
Doctor Carrick residence in Lexington, "White Hall," and the Helm
Place, south of Lexington, show good examples. At the latter, sliding
doors, encased by recessed wing walls, made their appearance. Interior
doors may have horizontal or vertical panels and may be enframed by
a splayed casing with Greek "ears" at the top, or by a rectangular
casing resting upon simple plinths and carved with fret or key designs
and including recessed corner blocks at the top. A prominent interior
feature of this period was the elaborate decorative plaster work in the
form of deep cornices and central medallions in the ceilings. The latter
were decorated with the Greek "water leaf," anthemion, acanthus, and
other motifs executed exquisitely in plaster of Paris, and were tinted
in delicate pastel colors; they formed the motif from which crystal
chandeliers were suspended.
Fine old examples of Greek Revival architecture are the McClure,
Barbee (Adams), and Chestnut houses in Danville; "Aspen Hall" and
the Ben Lee Harden House in Harrodsburg; the Showalter, Brooker,
and Shropshire houses at Georgetown (see Tour 4); the Colonel James
Marshall Brown and Carrothers houses in Bardstown; the James Wier-
Duncan (Dr. Carrick) home in Lexington; and Helm Place, south of
6723-2206723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
THE ARTS 133
that city. Certain of the buildings at the Kentucky School for the
Deaf at Danville, old Centre College (see Tour 5) in the same city,
Daughters7 College (now the main hall of Beaumont Inn) at Harrods-
burg.
A number of churches and residences in Kentucky are excellent
examples of the Gothic Revival style (1835-1860). The First Pres-
byterian Church of Louisville (organized in 1816) erected a Gothic
church edifice with a square English tower, while St. Paul's Episcopal
Church in the same city built one of Gothic design with tower and
spire. An interesting church of this era is the fine old First Presby-
terian at Danville. Another very choice example is the little sexton's
house, in the abandoned Episcopal Cemetery in Lexington, designed
just prior to the War between the States by John McMurtry, a promi-
nent architect of the city. The Gothic continued to be the popular
ecclesiastical style up to the war, and so strong was its momentum
that it survived as "Victorian Gothic" in the post-war period.
There are five typical examples of the Gothic Revival residences left
in Kentucky, four of brick and one of wood. Three of these—the
Alexander-Alford house, "Ingleside" and "Loudoun," in Lexington—
may be attributed to McMurtry, who made a trip to England to study
the details of the Tudor Gothic style of that country. The date of the
building of "Ingleside" is generally given as 1852. "Loudoun," on the
Bryan Station Pike (Loudoun Avenue) at the northern limits of Lex-
ington, now beautifully overgrown with English ivy, is a handsome
Gothic Revival house. "Mound Cottage," in Danville, said to have
been built in the late fifties, is another splendid example constructed
of brick; while "Woodland Villa" on the Paris-Maysville Pike is an
interesting example, built of wood.
The War between the States and the reconstruction period were gen-
erally very discouraging eras for architecture in America. The blight
that settled over building in the Nation was, if anything, more pro-
nounced in the border States than elsewhere. Kentucky was a part of
the battleground, and many a fine ante bellum structure was pressed
into wartime service. As a result a number of fine old buildings, like
Bacon College at Harrodsburg and the "second" Medical Building of
Transylvania University at Lexington, both in the Greek style, were
burned during the war. Not until the expansive industrial period which
followed reconstruction was there a revival of building activity in Ken-
tucky, and by this time eclecticism, which has since characterized art
in America, had begun its riotous career.
6723-2216723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
134 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
During the reconstruction period American architecture reached its
depth of degradation. Indeed the country did not awaken to the ugli-
ness of its art until the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876
gave us some notion of the art of other nations. The period between
this exposition and that of Chicago in 1893 was a backward one, but
during this interim American students who had been studying architec-
ture abroad, particularly at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, returned
to give a new impetus to architectural design in America.
One of these students, Richard Morris Hunt, who had gone to Paris
in 1843, had returned home just prior to the War between the States.
During the seventies and eighties he was at the height of his profes-
sional career and, being a champion of the French Renaissance, gen-
erated a great vogue for this style through the example of his works.
Following his precedent, buildings throughout the Union were conceived
and erected in the mansard-roofed style, capitols, courthouses, city
halls, post offices, and large residences in particular being adapted to
this manner. The Louisville City Hall and the old Post Office (1886-
1892), at the northeast corner of Fourth and Chestnut Streets, together
with other buildings in the city and elsewhere in the State, were part
of this movement.
Just at the close of the War between the States, Henry Hobson
Richardson, a native of Louisiana, returned from his architectural
studies in Paris. Soon he was in practice, and, although he died at
the age of forty-eight, his influence upon American architecture was
most pronounced. He espoused the Romanesque manner of the south
of France and the north of Spain, and designed many buildings
throughout the Union in a manner so highly personalized that it has
since been called the Richardsonian Romanesque. This vogue, although
highly eclectic, so captivated the American people that Montgomery
Schuyler, an architectural critic and writer of the time, hailed it as the
"American National style." Trinity Church in Boston is, perhaps,
Richardson's most beautiful building. Kentucky, in common with
other States, exhibited considerable enthusiasm for the Romanesque
and within the State there are a number of examples in this manner,
among them the post offices at Lexington (1886-89), Owensboro
(1888-89), Paducah (1881-83), and Richmond (1893-97); the Lex-
ington City Hall; and the Central Christian Church in the same city;
the Christian Church in Cynthiana, and the State Street Methodist
Church in Bowling Green. Essentially a style adapted to construction
6723-2226723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
THE ARTS I3S
in stone or brick, the Romanesque is still popular in some sections for
hospitals, schools, and churches.
Once eclecticism had set in, the architect felt free to examine Old
World styles and to adopt any that seemed appropriate to the task at
hand. This led to an infusion into American architecture of Italian,
English, French, and Spanish ideas and motifs, and most cities show
the personal predilections of the architects who designed their struc-
tures. Not finding a better style than the Gothic for church build-
ings, architects generally reverted to this manner for ecclesiastical
work. Certainly the influence of Ralph Adams Cram and his associates
in the East has helped to fix upon America the Gothic as a church
style; upon occasion, other structures have been built in this manner.
A good example is the old post office in Covington (1875-79), which
is an American adaptation of the Italian Gothic popular at the time it
was built. In a sense the continuity of the Gothic Revival has never
been broken, except for the interlude of the War between the States,
when most architectural activity ceased. Thus by 1872 Cincinnatus
Shryock, brother of Gideon, was constructing the First Presbyterian
Church in Lexington of brick in Gothic style. St. Rose Church at St.
Rose, Kentucky, and the church of Gethsemane Abbey (see Tour 6)
belong also to this continuation of the Gothic Revival, which we gen-
erally call Neo-Gothic. Kentucky is well supplied with churches of
this type, many of them, like the Chapel of the Good Shepherd in
Lexington, being of very excellent design.
American architecture, with the exception of the Romanesque and
Gothic infiltrations, has derived its inspiration largely from the Classic.
Therefore, when the',Chicago World's Fair of 1893 blossomed forth in
forms almost exclusively classic, the country was very ready to accept
them; and, as a result, American architecture for the past forty years
has remained decidedly classic in flavor. This classicism has been at-
tained at times through the adoption of the Greek or Roman forms, at
other times through a skillful rendition of American utilities in the
spirit of the Italian Renaissance, as in the new State Capitol at Frank-
fort. An interesting example of the adaptation of Italian Renaissance
architecture was the famous Gait House, on Main Street in Louisville,
which showed unmistakable inspiration from the Palazzo Farnese in
Rome.
Henry Whitestone was the architect of a great number of commend-
able structures in the city of Louisville, which, in general, may be said
to be of classic design. In addition to structures with a decidedly
6723-2236723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
136 KENTUCKY: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
antique flavor, like the new Post Office in Louisville and the Lincoln
Memorial (see Tour 6), on the Lincoln Farm at Hodgenville, there
has been a recent tendency to revive another style of classic derivation,
the American Georgian. The Christian Church in Harrodsburg, the
new Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, and many residences
throughout the State indicate a growing regard for indigenous American
types.
6723-2246723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
Part II
Cities and Towns
6723-2256723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--6723-2266723KENTUCKY A GUIDE TO THE BLUEGRASS STATE--
ASHLAND
Railroad Stations: Carter Ave. and 12th St., for Chesapeake & Ohio Ry.; N. end
Interstate Bridge, for Norfolk & Western R.R.; Kenova, W. Va. 6 m. E. for Balti-
more & Ohio, and Norfolk & Western R.R's.
Bus Station: Union Depot, 13th St., near Winchester Ave., for Greyhound and
Sparks Bros. Lines.
Local Biues: Local, interurban, and jitney buses; fare 5tf and 10#.
Airport: L. from Winchester Ave. on 34th St.; no scheduled service.
Taxis: 25$ minimum.
Toll Bridge: Kentucky-Ohio Interstate Bridge: autos, 2S#; pedestrians, 5